The Victorians extolled romantic love but were also committed to the claims of the family. On the one hand they wrote extensively about the importance of courtship and romance and the joys of a loving marriage. On the other, they were sharply exposed to the forces that might frustrate romance, especially the power of patriarchy and the need for family solidarity. On this course we shall study fiction, poetry and drama that deals with different kinds of love (between husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children, as well as young lovers), exploring how attraction and passion are treated in the context of family relationships. The novels to be studied will be George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, Wilkie Collins’s No Name, Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters and Anthony Trollope’s An Eye for an Eye. Poetry by Christina Rossetti and drama by Henrik Ibsen will also be included.
Love and Family in Nineteenth-Century Literature
This is an in-person course which requires your attendance at the weekly meetings which take place in Oxford.
Overview
Programme details
Course starts: 22 Jan 2026
Week 1: Introduction: Love and Family in the 19th century
Week 2: George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860)
Week 3: George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860)
Week 4: Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market (1862)
Week 5: Wilkie Collins, No Name (1862)
Week 6: Wilkie Collins, No Name (1862)
Week 7: Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters (1866)
Week 8: Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters (1866)
Week 9: Anthony Trollope, An Eye for an Eye (1878)
Week 10: Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House (1879)
Recommended reading
All weekly class students may become borrowing members of the Rewley House Continuing Education Library for the duration of their course. Prospective students whose courses have not yet started are welcome to use the Library for reference. More information can be found on the Library website.
There is a Guide for Weekly Class students which will give you further information.
Recommended reading is optional and you are not required to purchase these books to study this course.
Optional preparatory reading:
- The Cambridge Companion To The Victorian Novel / Deirdre David (ed)
- Elizabeth Gaskell / Jenny Uglow
- George Eliot / Jenny Uglow
- Christina Rossetti / Kathryn Burlinson
- Wilkie Collins: New Casebook / Lynn Pykett (ed.)
- Ibsen / Sally Ledger
Certification
Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS) Points
Only those who have registered for assessment and accreditation will be awarded CATS points for completing work to the required standard. Please note that assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail. Please follow this link for more information on Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS) points
Digital Certificate of Completion
Students who are registered for assessment and accreditation and pass their final assignment will also be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Information on how to access the digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course attended. You will be able to download the certificate and share it on social media if you choose to do so.
Please note students who do not register for assessment and accreditation during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Course fee (with no assessment) | £300.00 |
| Assessment and Accreditation fee | £60.00 |
Funding
If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:
Tutor
Dr David Grylls
Dr David Grylls, Emeritus Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford, was formerly Director of Studies in English Literature and Creative Writing at Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education. His publications include books on Charles Dickens, George Gissing and Victorian parent-child relationships, as well as numerous academic articles and reviews for the Sunday Times. He has lectured widely in the USA as well as Britain, and also in France, Sweden, Italy, Greece and Gibraltar.
Course aims
- To study a range of literary treatments of love in conflict with family and patriarchy in the fiction, poetry and drama of the nineteenth century.
- To study a selection of Victorian literary treatments of love in conflict with family and patriarchy.
- To suggest ways in which our understanding of these works can be deepened by a combination of critical approaches – literary, historical, ideological and biographical.
- To equip students with general skills in the analysis of literature, including an appreciation of metaphor, characterisation and narrative strategy.
Teaching methods
Presentation/exposition by the tutor.
Guided class discussion.
Short class presentations by individual students (approx. 10 minutes).
Whole group practical criticism in class of poems and / or prose extracts.
Feedback from smaller student groups on questions and topics set earlier by the tutor
Group discussion of scenes from film versions on DVD or YouTube of some of the set texts.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will be expected to:
- give an account of the main features of the content and form of the literary works studied.
- demonstrate awareness of the relevant contexts of the works, whether literary, historical, ideological or biographical
- undertake literary analysis of fiction, drama and poetry by discussing features such as narrative technique, characterisation, irony and the use of figurative language.
Assessment methods
Assessment will be by Option B, i.e. students registered for credit will be expected to submit an essay amounting to 1500 words at the end of the course. The tutor will circulate assignment topics.
Students will also have the opportunity to submit a formative assignment of 500 words during the course.
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation will submit coursework.
Application
To be able to submit coursework and to earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £60 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Please use the 'Book now' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an Enrolment form for short courses | Oxford University Department for Continuing Education
Students who do not register for assessment and credit during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.
Level and demands
The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.
Anyone who has read a nineteenth-century novel and is curious about others should be able to participate enjoyably in this course.