Victorian Novel Comparison Toolkit

Thirty four novels scored on ten axes that genuinely differ between them, so a comparison becomes an argument about a variable rather than a list of similarities. Tap a novel to open its full profile.

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The Ten Axes

Each axis is a real variable across the period, with its possible values, what a difference along it lets you argue, and the mistake it invites. Choose the axis before choosing the novels and the comparison writes itself.

A comparison organised by theme produces a list of similarities. A comparison organised by axis produces an argument, because an axis has values and two novels sitting at different points on it are disagreeing about something. Pick the axis where your two novels differ most sharply and the essay has a spine before you write a word.

Compare Two

Any two novels, side by side on all ten axes, with the axes on which they agree and disagree separated automatically. The disagreements are where an essay lives.

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Sharpest contrast
Choose two novels above.

Pairings Worth Making

Sixteen comparisons that produce a genuine argument, each naming the single variable it isolates and the question it opens. Not every pair of Victorian novels is worth setting side by side, and these are the ones that are.

Conditions of the Form

Ten material facts about how these books were written, sold and read. Each one shaped the novels in ways visible on the page, and knowing them turns context from decoration into evidence.

Extending This

Everything renders from five arrays. Adding a novel, an axis, a pairing or a condition is appending one object.