The volume is a survey of British literature from 1830 to 1870. Of this period, Walker writes: "Next to the eighteenth century, the age of Tennyson has been the most critical in our literature." Includes studies of the works of Carlyle, Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, the Bröntes, Macaulay, and Arnold among others.

"First published in 1897."