Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era.(Book Review)

Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era. Ed. by James Eli Adams, Tom Pendergast, and Sara Pendergast. Danbury, Conn.: Grolier, 2004. 4 vols. acid free $499 (ISBN 0-7172-5860-2).

The Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era (EVE) is the most comprehensive encyclopedia to date on the sixty-four years of Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 to 1901. The stated intention of the work is to "provide sweeping coverage of the social, political, and intellectual landscape of the British-dominated world" (vii) during that period, and it succeeds. This four-volume set (1,492 pages of text in all) provides an invaluable introduction to the Victorian period for a wide range of readers, with accessible prose and in-depth analysis of the complexity and interconnectedness of the time. It …