Patrick Brantlinger is James Rudy Professor of English and Victorian Studies (Emeritus) at Indiana University. He is the author or editor of 13 books including Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1900 (Cornell University Press, 1988), Dark Vanishings: Nineteenth-Century Discourse about the Extinction of Primitive Races (Cornell University Press, 2003), and The Blackwell Companion to the Victorian Novel (Blackwell Publishers, 2002), edited with William Thesing.

• Series Editors' Preface; Acknowledgments; Timeline; Exploring the Terrain: Introduction: Nineteenth-Century Literature and Imperialism; Slavery and Empire in Romantic and Early Victorian Literature; The Empire Cleans Up Its Act; Emigration Narratives; Thrilling Adventures; Race and Character; Imperial Gothic; Debates: Imperial Historiography, Marxism, and Postcolonialism; Gender, Sexuality, and Race; Orientalism(s); 'Mimicry' versus 'Going Native'; Can Subalterns Speak?; Case Studies: Homecomings; Tennyson, Yeats, and Celticism; Oriental Desires and Imperial Boys: Romancing India; Imperial Boys: Romancing Africa; Coda; Primary Sources; Works Cited; Secondary Sources; Further Reading

With clarity and economy, a broad vista of political, socio-cultural and geographical factors are viewed, combining perspectives on the imperial source material with the critiques offered by postcolonial reassessments – aesthetic and ethical. Brantlinger's longstanding scholarly expertise in this area is adroitly condensed into a mere 180 pages ... this concise yet considerable scope is the work's strength and should see it become a necessary guide to an almost unmanageably complex area.