Josie Billington teaches in the School of English, University of Liverpool, UK. Her publications include Faithful Realism (2002), Eliot's Middlemarch (2008) and an edition of Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (2006).
'An excellent and very thorough explication of the background and contexts, utilizing multiple critical perspectives, to illuminate the genius of one of the greatest of Victorian novels ... [this] book should be on every students shelf.' Professor William Baker, Northern Illinois University, USA. The latest in Continuum's excellent series of 'Reader's Guides' ... [a] highly readable and clearly informative book. - Ian Brinton, The Use of English