This study of literary censorship in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods argues that Realist writers played a significant role in the battle against censorship by contributing transgressive sexual representations as well as incorporating themes of censorship in their fictions.

Anthony Patterson holds a PhD from Durham University. He has held posts as Visiting Lecturer at Northumbria University, Research Assistant at Durham University, and Academic Tutor at Sunderland University. He is currently Assistant Professor at the American University of Ras al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates.

Contents: Zola in the country of Mrs Grundy: Naturalism, reticence and the moral aesthetics of the Victorian novel – Some fear of Mrs Grundy before their eyes: George Moore, British Naturalism and censorship – Defying Mrs Grundy: Thomas Hardy’s and the hilltop fiction of Grant Allen – Making Mrs Grundy’s flesh creep: The New Woman assault on late Victorian censorship – Burying Mrs Grundy alive: Censorship, morality and the Edwardian sex novel.