More exciting VPR news!

The Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize – RSVP The Colby Book Prize was endowed in 2006 in memory of Robert Colby by his wife, Vineta Colby, distinguished scholars and long-time members of RSVP. In 2011, following Vineta’s death, the Board of…

Did you read or review a great new book on #19thC periodical studies? Was it published in the last year? If yes, nominate it for a Colby Book Prize! We're still accepting nominations through 31 January. [NB: For tax reasons, authors *cannot* self-nominate.] More info here:

Issue 8: Play in the Long Nineteenth Century Issue 8 of Romance, Revolution and Reform.

It's here!

We are delighted to announce that Issue 8 of the RRR Journal, Play in the Long Nineteenth Century, is available to read now at the link below.

We can't wait to hear your thoughts on these brilliant articles!

www.rrrjournal.com/issue/8

Congratulations Martin! Great to read this!

Introducing A New Interview Series – RSVP We're launching a new series of interviews of senior RSVP members, who will discuss their advice for researching 19th-century periodicals.

Happy Holidays from RSVP! Our gift 🎁 to you is the debut of a new interview series, starting with @patrickleary.bsky.social, who sat down with @c19thnewshound.bsky.social this past year to discuss "Getting Started with Periodicals Research." Stay tuned for more in 2026! rs4vp.org/introducing-...

Merry Christmas from all of us here at Gwent Archives!

One of our favourite items in our collection, is a set of Victorian Christmas cards.

Turn your phones and screen to uncover a twist with this particular card!

The arrest of Greta Thunberg for peacefully opposing genocide and supporting those on hunger strike is wrongful and disturbing.

This is yet another shocking example of the UK’s broad terrorism laws being used to target those exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly rights.

You were fabulous -- bravissima!

Next task: getting that gondola for a champagne-laden trip down the Avon!

(Image from theshakespeareblog.com/2013/04/mari...)

Meanwhile, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Submissions for the VPFA First Book Prize are now OPEN! Deadline is 31st December 2025. For full eligibility criteria and submission guidelines, go to: victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-book-pr...

The Official Ouida Starter Guide As told by Helena Esser So, this Ouida lady.You’ve heard so much, a lot of it from me, if you’ve met me. “I really have to read Ouida!”, you vow, after I’ve tried to conjure the rush and beauty of …

Do you want to start reading Ouida but don't know where to start? Find my handy #Ouida Starter Guide on the official VPFA blog:

@vpfa.bsky.social
victorianpopularfiction.org/the-official...

The VPFA Blog The VPFA Blog Welcome to the VPFA Blog! Here we will have ponderings, reflections, speculative readings, and more, for the reading pleasure of our fellow Victorianists. If you would like to submit …

Excited to announce that the VPFA blog has launched! Thanks to Emma Butler-Way for her hard work in getting it ready for today, for more information check out the blog at the link below:

victorianpopularfiction.org/the-vpfa-blog/

Don't miss my account of what it was like for a first-timer at this summer's #vpfaextremes conference. A very exciting read indeed ;-)

In Which…I Spent a Month at Chawton House! A reflection by Rebecca HamiltonI spent the entire month of August feeling as though I were a character in a Jane Austen’s novel, in the very place Jane Austen wrote all her major novels: Chawton. …

I have written a Blog Post for @vpfa.bsky.social about my time at @chawtonhouse.bsky.social as a Visiting Fellow! To read about the value of organisations like Chawton House to scholarly associations like VPFA, and an amusing snippet from a woman's diary: victorianpopularfiction.org/in-which-i-s...

A reminder to get your abstracts in for VPFA's next upcoming Study Day, organised by Anne-Marie Beller: 'Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities: A VPFA Study Day'.
Email a.m.beller@lboro.ac.uk for any additional information.

Send me your abstracts for Sensation Fiction and the Health Humanities #VPFA #HealthHumsLboro

The Critical Age in Victorian Popular Literature: 19th May 2026 An Online VPFA Study Day Keynote Speaker: Dr Louise Benson James, Ghent University Call for PapersDeadline for Proposals: 19th February 2026 This one-day symposium seeks to explore representations …

Full CfP here: victorianpopularfiction.org/the-critical...

This one-day symposium seeks to explore representations of the ‘critical age’ – the (peri-) menopause – in Victorian popular literature. The peri-menopausal and menopausal experiences of Victorian women have to date been overlooked or underrepresented in scholarly discussions of the period. Victorian popular literature, from novels to periodicals to advice books, provided an essential forum for discussing and shaping the public understanding of women’s bodies, even as much of it sought to obscure the female body. The (peri-) menopausal experience was often framed in terms of illness, excess, and degeneration, or, conversely, was relegated to silence. Women at the ‘critical age’ are frequently marginalised and associated with a range of negative stereotypes in literary and cultural narratives. This call for papers invites exploration of how this phase of women’s lives was constructed in the Victorian imagination, in medical discourses and advice literature, and in women’s lived experiences. We invite 20-minute papers exploring any aspect of the critical age in Victorian popular literature. Topics for exploration include but are not limited to: • Representations of the critical age in Victorian popular fiction • The medicalisation of (peri-) menopause • Cultural constructions of middle-aged women • Class and (peri-) menopause • (Peri-) Menopause in Victorian advice literature • Motherhood and (peri-) menopause • Experiences of the critical age in Victorian women’s life writing • Myths and popular misconceptions The event will also include a Digital Humanities Research Skills Workshop, with an emphasis on making digital methods more accessible. We invite short papers or workshop proposals that showcase how digital tools can be used to research women and their bodies in Victorian literature. Possible topics include data creation/cleaning/visualisations, textual, quantitative or statistical analysis, using AI or specific tools (such as Voyant or Power BI).

Another VPFA Study Day: 'The Critical Age in Victorian Popular Literature'
❓literary representations of the (peri-) menopause
🌏 online
📅 19th May 2026
💰 free for VPFA Members/ £5 for non-members
Send proposals (250) to
jessica.cox@brunel.ac.uk and siobhan.smith@tees.ac.uk by 19th February 2026

I'm thrilled to be co-organising this study day next year. Please consider submitting an abstract and joining us in this important and fascinating conversation about women's (peri-) menopause in Victorian literature

This is the first of many Member Spotlights. We want to make this a fortnightly series, where we highlight any achievements of our Members, because YOU are the heart and soul of VPFA. Email vpfamedia@gmail.com with any achievements and a photo of yourself and we will be delighted to share.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Helena Esser. Helena has been a loyal VPFA member since 2018. She runs the VPFA Blog, and she serves on the committee for VPFA's Third Sex Reading Group, making all of the fantastic reading packs many of you know and love. As some of you may already know, Helena's book, Ouida, was a runner up in our Second Book Prize. It has recently been reviewed by Professor Sara Murphy on The Victorian Web, and we wanted to highlight Helena's book and this wonderful review. Murphy writes: "this book constitutes a valuable contribution as both an introduction and, with its extensive bibliography, a provocation to further research. Esser's volume not only takes us on a tour, more or less chronological, of a long and prolific career, but also opens up important ways in which popular fiction — an appellation that, as Esser points out, Ouida would have protested — helps us tell an important and under-recognized story of the nineteenth-century literary field". Read the full review here: https://lnkd.in/dWvnCz_g If you love this book, might we recommend you also read her book Steampunk London: Neo-Victorian Urban Space and Popular Transmedia Memory? This is the first of (hopefully) many Member Spotlights to come. We want to make this a fortnightly series, where we highlight any achievements of our Members, because YOU are the heart and soul of VPFA. So if you have anything you want us to highlight or broadcast - whether that be a publication, a review, a fellowship, or ANYTHING - please get in touch with us at vpfamedia@gmail.com with details and a photo of yourself and we will be delighted to share.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Helena Esser. Helena's book, Ouida, was a runner up in our Second Book Prize. It has recently been reviewed by Professor Sara Murphy on The Victorian Web: www.victorianweb.org/authors/ouid...
Esser runs VPFA Blog, and she serves on the committee for VPFA's Third Sex Reading Group

We are Study Day MAD: 'The Victorian Short Story: Influence, Innovation, and Legacy'.
🌏 Online
📅 19th April 2026
💰 Fee for non-members
Full CfP: victorianpopularfiction.org/the-victoria...
Send abstracts (250-300) for 20-min papers and bio (50) to VPFAconference@gmail.com by 20/12/25

Frankenstein (2025); or, the Adaptation Shelley Deserves A review by Emma Butler-WayEvery interview that I saw snippets of suggested to me that Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein was going to be quite something; this was a director and a cast who cl…

I had some thoughts (and many emotions) about the new Frankenstein film, so wrote this review for the VPFA Blog @vpfa.bsky.social

Philomena Cunk memes: a major part of the review, or a side thought? You'll have to read it to find out...

victorianpopularfiction.org/frankenstein...

Please give Emma's wonderful blog post about Guillermo del Torro's Frankenstein a read. Let us know your thoughts, did you enjoy the film? What did you like and dislike? Even if it deviated from the book, did it, as Emma says, still keep its 'soul'?

Just a reminder that the deadline for our First Book Prize is coming up (31 December). Full submission guidelines are in the original post - we'd love to see your entry!

Victorian Periodicals Review is hiring an Associate Editor! Send a 1 page letter detailing interest and qualifications and 1 page CV to katherine.malone@sdstate.edu by Monday, December 15, 2025

@rs4vp.org

CfP for VPFA's 18th Annual Conference is now live and the topic is 'Victorians and their Publics'. To read the CfP and full submission guidelines online, please head to: victorianpopularfiction.org/vpfa-annual-....

Membership To join the VPFA, or renew your membership, please complete our membership form:VPFA-Membership-Form 2025-26 (downloads Word Document)Full membership is £25 and Student membership is £10. Membershi…

Check your emails for 'Upcoming VPFA Events' to sign up. If you aren't a member, become one here to receive the event links: victorianpopularfiction.org/membership-j...

Join us for our final Virtual Tea Salon of 2025! Continue the festivities by networking with fellow Victorianists. Christmas attire and festive drinks encouraged! ☃️❄️

To be featured in the Member Spotlight series to showcase your research or any achievements, please email vpfamedia@gmail.com with a photo of yourself and details of what you would like shared.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT! 🔦 : Milly Harrison. Milly has been a VPFA member since 2021. Her thesis, 'Deviant Cartographies', examines how British Weird fiction allowed late-Victorian authors to explore deviant masculinity.
Harrison recently published in Gothic Studies: www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/...