This study of narrative technique in Victorian novels introduces the concept of 'narrative annexes' whereby unexpected characters, impermissible subjects and plot-changing events are introduced within fictional worlds which otherwise exclude them. They are marked by the crossing of borders into previously unrepresented places and new genres or modes, challenging Victorian cultural and literary norms. Suzanne Keen's original readings of novels by Charlotte Brontë, Dickens, Disraeli, Hardy, Kingsley, Trollope, and Wells show these writers negotiating the boundaries of representation to reveal in narrative annexes the subjects (notably sexuality and social class) which contemporary critics sought to exclude from the realm of the novel. Fears of disease, of working men, of Popery, of dark-skinned 'others', of the poor who toil and starve in close proximity to the rectories, homes, clubs and walled gardens of Victorian polite society draw readers down narrow alleys, through thorny hedges, across desolate heaths, into narrative annexes.

"...Keen's book...exemplifies a form of contemporary criticism that is...especially praiseworthy. Victorian Renovatons of the Novel is thoroughly informed....keen's theoretical interests lead her not to ignore or deny but to confront the actual reading experience of the actual novel-reader....Victorian Renovations of the Novel is a gracefully written, astute, and frequently enlightening book." Brian Rosenberg, Dickens Quarterly

"Suzanne Keen's Victorian Renovations of the Novel: Narrative Annexes and the Boundaries of Representation is an ambitious work that may be expected to exert an influence well beyond Victorian studies...Her depiction of the radical historical heterogeneity of the novels...is profoundly literary and productive...This is a densely packed, suggestive, and wonderfully written study." Linda Dowling, Studies in English Literature

"Keen's style is lucid and her prose is a pleasure to read. The readings of specific novels are attentive and sensitive..." Journal of English and Germanic Philology