Remember that this is the era of Dickens. A London filled with grime and crime, overflowing with people starving and suffering from many diseases, caused in large part by the unhealthy living conditions of the city at that time. Not only Dickens, but Austin, Hardy, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot, and others. You'll enjoy the glimpses of Wordsworth and Coleridge from Carlyle's sketches of them. And when Mill writes of women, well, remember that women's role historically has been as subject.
Women begin, in the Victorian period, to reach out.
This week's reading is a good introduction to the Victorians. Our essays here form a nice preface to the works to come. And next week, be prepared to dip back into poetry and read a sampling of the work of one of the greats of English literature, Alfred, Lord Tennyson.