Asa Briggs’ Victorian Cities is a mainstay of research on Victorian cities. Briggs was a preeminent historian, and his work makes the assumptions that a
historian of the top caliber makes.
Determine in what ways literary analysis of particular literary works in the Victorian era might add to and challenge the assumptions of this classic study of
Victorian cities.
The essay should be concrete and engaged in close readings of both literature and history, particularly Briggs’ version of it.