While the popular image of the Victorian world is one of stiff formality and old-fashioned values, it was an incredibly transformative time for many people who sought better protections, fairer wages, and greater freedom. And this included an increasingly popular and successful fight for animal welfare. Prior to the 19th century, the mistreatment of animals was rarely questioned, and sports like bullbaiting and dogfighting were common. So, what brought the plight of exploited and suffering animals to the attention of activists, politicians, and the public at large?

In the eight lectures of Victorian Animals in Literature and Culture, Professor Deborah Morse will take you back to the reign of Queen Victoria to explore the transformation of long-held ideas, beliefs, and fears concerning animals—and our own animal natures as well. Through novels such as Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty and Virginia Woolf’s Flush, as well as stories and books by Beatrix Potter, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ernest Thomas Seton, and many others, you will see how a developing kinship with animals in literature and art presented new perspectives that would inform more than just the cause of animal welfare. While many writers were directly concerned with the ethics of animal treatment and our coexistence with the animal kingdom, stories featuring animals often make resonant and vital observations about the human world, too.

As you will see, the ethical considerations that took root and grew in the 19th century still deeply inform the way we think today. Professor Morse brings your journey full circle by examining a 21st-century novel, Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, which shows how the ideas and explorations of the Victorians affect the present. Through this work and those that preceded it, you’ll see how our conception of the feelings, intelligence, and rights of animals has changed not only the way we think about them, but how we live together with them in our shared world.