Reading Popular Culture in Victorian Print: Belgravia and Sensationalism is a comprehensive study of the whole run of the monthly periodical Belgravia under the direction of Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It traces the material history of the magazine, its production and global distribution while at the same time placing its history and content in the context of Victorian popular culture and Victorian discursive formations. Among the questions Reading Popular Culture in Victorian Print investigates are the status of authors in the marketplace, the innovative place Belgravia holds in the history of print culture, the rhetoric of sensationalism in fiction, journalism and pre-cinema, the representation of trade with India, and the use of urban space as a branding strategy. It makes the claim that the periodical is the sensation novel of the 1860s.

ALBERTO GABRIELE studied Philology and Literary Criticism at the University of Florence, Italy, where he was awarded a laurea with honors. A recipient of a Fulbright fellowship, he holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from New York University's Comparative Literature Department. His research interests are the history of the novel, the relation between the written text and visual culture, and the history of film.