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4. [https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Map-Londons-Terrifying-Epidemic/dp/1594482691/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508823751&sr=1-1&keywords=Steven+Johnson%3A+%27%27The+Ghost+Map%3A+The+Story+of+London%E2%80%99s+Most+Terrifying+Epidemic Steven Johnson: ''The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic]'' – This book is a super fun, quick read on nineteenth-century medical history that examines a particular outbreak of cholera in London in 1854 and a doctor named John Snow who helped put an end to it. Johnson's work explains how theories of contagion evolved from blaming sickness on "bad air" (miasma), to blaming sickness on bacteria due that arose from unsanitary conditions. Dr. John Snow's findings changed the nature of epidemiology forever -- one cannot overemphasize the importance of this study.
5. [https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Victorian-England-Sally-Mitchell/dp/0313294674/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508823783&sr=1-1&keywords=sally+Mitchell%3A+%27%27Daily+Life+in+Victorian+England%27 Sally Mitchell: ''Daily Life in Victorian England''] – This book is a quick primer on social history in Victorian England. It deals mostly with the rise of the middle class, which is a very important part of nineteenth-century history. Great for This book takes on a quick overview of vast subject matter, so the information contained within is condensed, and can sometimes lean toward being oversimplified. For those interested in learning more about the Victorian social historyperiod, Mitchell's book is a good place to begin, though.
6. [https://www.amazon.com/Darkened-Room-Spiritualism-Victorian-England/dp/0226642054/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508823810&sr=1-1&keywords=Alex+Owen%3A+%27%27The+Darkened+Room%3A+Women%2C+Power+and+Spiritualism+in+Late+Victorian+England Alex Owen: ''The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England]'' – While this book deals with a specific subject matter, it is a wonderful introduction to the little-explored life of women during the Victorian period. In zeroing in on spiritualism as a mechanism by which women subverted traditional gender relations, Owen also examines the role of gender during this era in a more general sense. With the advent of science, Victorians became obsessed with explaining the unexplainable, and Owen does a magnificent job of explaining the place of such pseudoscience during this period.
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7. [https://www.amazon.com/Eminent-Victorians-Classic-20th-Century-Penguin/dp/0140183507/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508823834&sr=1-1&keywords=Lytton+Strachey%3A+%27%27Eminent+Victorians%27 Lytton Strachey: ''Eminent Victorians]']' – This work, first published in 1918, was one of the first biographies to ''not'' examine only great (white) men who did great things. Strachey's style helped replace a certain reverence that Victorians usually held for famous figures with a healthy skepticism of these figures' actions. Strachey examines his subjects' notable deeds alongside their faults, all the while displaying great wit and undeniable readability.
8. [https://www.amazon.com/Oscar-Wilde-Richard-Ellmann/dp/0394759842/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508823858&sr=1-1&keywords=Richard+Ellmann%3A+%27%27Oscar+Wilde Richard Ellmann: ''Oscar Wilde]'' – With a subject like Oscar Wilde, a biographer would be hard-pressed to create a work that didn't read like a best-selling novel. Ellmann's work is the definitive biography of Wilde; it brilliantly juxtaposes Wilde’s eccentricities against straight-laced Victorian society. It's a hefty read at over 700 pages, but well worth it.
