Email:听juliette.atkinson@ucl.ac.uk 听 | ![]() |
Education and Experience
Juliette Atkinson was educated at 香港六合彩 (B.A. Hons) and Oxford (M.St, 鈥1900-Present鈥; Christ Church). In 2008, she completed a PhD on Victorian life-writing, funded by a 香港六合彩 Graduate School Research Scholarship.听From 2009 she worked as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at 香港六合彩, before becoming a Lecturer in 2012,听Associate Professor in听2018, and Professor in 2023.
Research Interests
Juliette's research focuses on three main areas:听
- Nineteenth-century fiction:听she has a particular interest in the work of George Eliot. She has written the introduction, notes, and appendix for the Oxford World's Classics edition of George Eliot's听The Mill on the Floss, and has edited Eliot's听Silas Marner,听also for Oxford World's Classics. She has published articles on Eliot, and her Very Short Introduction to George Eliot听for OUP (2024), and听The Oxford Handbook of George Eliot (which she is co-editing with Elisha Cohn, of Cornell University), will appear soon. Her second book (see below) explored the influence of French fiction on Victorian novelists and their reviewers, and she is also interested in the work of Charlotte Bront毛 - she published听a new introduction, notes and appendices for the Oxford World's Classics edition of听Jane Eyre in 2019. Juliette听convenes the undergraduate Victorian Period course in the department.听
- Life-writing: Juliette's听first book,听Victorian Biography Reconsidered: a Study of Nineteenth-Century 鈥楬idden鈥 Lives听(OUP, 2010), funded by a 香港六合彩 scholarship, considered听the lives of obscure or minor individuals who form the subjects of Victorian biographers working against the contemporary fascination with 鈥楪reat Men鈥. Working-class biographies, 鈥榝ailed鈥 lives, the representation of female subjects, attempted recoveries of neglected Romantic artists, and the lesser luminaries of the Dictionary of National Biography are all given close analysis.听She is currently finishing volume 5 of the听Oxford History of Life-Writing听(General editor Zachary Leader), which will provide an account of nineteenth-century听autobiography, biography, diaries, letters, and travel narratives.听She was听awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (September 2020-January 2022) for this research.
- Transnational networks: Juliette's听second book,听French Novels and the Victorians听(OUP, 2017), made use of both book history and close reading approaches to听take听issue with the common portrayal of the Victorians as insular and prudish readers. It considered the听publishing and cosmopolitan networks which disseminated听French literature in England, the complexities of Victorian (self-)censorship and censoriousness, and debates concerning foreign literary influence, interference and national literary protectionism.听The research was funded by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2009-2012), and part of the research, then in progress, was awarded a 听by the Bibliographical Society of America in 2012. Her current research on life-writing maintains her听interest in international exchange, and explores writing from across the globe.
Books
4.听听(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024, in press). 35,000 words.
3.听 Volume 5: The Nineteenth Century听(Oxford: Oxford University Press, c. 2024). 150,000 words.
2.听 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). A British Academy monograph. 426pp. Reviewed in:听Victorian Review; Victorian Periodical Reviews; Nineteenth-century Contexts; Nineteenth-century literature; French Studies; Nineteenth-century French Studies; Cahiers victoriens et edouardiens; English Historical Review; French History; H-France.
1.听 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). 315pp. Reviewed in:听TLS; Victorian Studies; Journal of Victorian Culture; Victorian Review; Life Writing; Journal of British Studies;听Biography; George Eliot Review; Notes and Queries.
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Editorial role
Juliette听is the Victorian/Modern听Period Editor for听, published by Oxford University Press.听
Edited Book
With Elisha Cohn (Cornell),听听(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025, in press). 400,000 words, 50 contributors.听
Editions
4. Introduction and notes.
3.
2. 听Introduction and notes.
1.听Bloom鈥檚 Classic Critical Views: George Eliot听(New York: Facts on File, 2009).
听
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Articles and Chapters
11. 'George Eliot's Journals', in听The Oxford Handbook of George Eliot, ed. Juliette Atkinson and Elisha Cohn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025, in press). 8,000 words.
10. 'Continental Currents: Paris and London', in ed. Joanne Shattock (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 224-44.
9. ''The most thrilling and fascinating book of the century': marketing Gustave Flaubert in late nineteenth-century England', in
8. 鈥楾he London Library and the circulation of French fiction in the 1840s鈥,听Information & Culture: A Journal of History听(formerly听Libraries and the Cultural Record), vol. 48.4 (November/December 2013), pp. 391-418.
7. 鈥楪eorge Eliot鈥檚 Reception to 1900鈥, 鈥楪eorge Eliot鈥檚 Reception 1900-1970鈥, and 鈥楪eorge Eliot鈥檚 Reception 1970-Present鈥, in听
6. 鈥楢lexander the Great鈥: Dumas鈥檚 invasion of early-Victorian England鈥,听听(PBSA), vol. 106, no. 4 (December 2012), pp. 417-47.
5. 鈥榃illiam Jeffs, Bookseller and Publisher of French Literature鈥,听 Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, vol. 13, no. 3 (September 2012), pp. 257-78.
4. ''To serve God and Mammon'': Braddon and Literary Transgression', in New Perspectives on Mary Elizabeth Braddon (NY and Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012),听pp. 133-54.
3. 鈥贵颈苍-诲别-蝉颈猫肠濒别听Female Biographers and the Reconsideration of Popular Women Writers鈥, in听Writing Women of the Fin de Si猫cle: Authors of Change, ed. Adrienne Gavin and Carolyn Oulton (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 111-23.
2. 鈥楳ary Robinson鈥, in听Encyclopedia of Literary Romanticism, ed. Andrew Maunder (New York: Facts on File, 2010).
1. 鈥樷淧oor sons of Adam in general, in this sad age of cobwebs鈥: Biography as social criticism in Thomas Carlyle鈥檚听The Life of John Sterling鈥. In听Life Writing: The State of the Art and The Spirit of the Age, ed. Meg Jensen and Jane Jordan (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009), pp. 2-11.
Reviews
Juliette's reviews include pieces for the TLS, Review of English Studies, History, Notes and Queries, and the George Eliot Review.
PhD supervision
Juliette has supervised/co-supervised听dissertations on Arthur Morrison and realist space, the fin-de-si猫cle literary agent J. P. Pinker, the Victorian doll's house, the literary landscape of the Victorian cemetery, newspaper poets of the South African war, nineteenth-century representations of vivisection, and Victorian cultures of self-help.
She welcomes听applications from prospective PhD students eager to work on听Victorian fiction (especially George Eliot), transnational literary relations, and life-writing of the long nineteenth century.听