Literature and the Late-Victorian Radical Press

Amidst a larger surge in the number of books and periodicals published in late-nineteenth-century Britain, a corresponding surge occurred in the radical press. The counter-cultural press that emerged at the fin de siecle sought to define itself in opposition to commercial print and the capitalist press and was deeply antagonistic to existing political, economic, and print publishing structures. Literature flourished across this counter-public print sphere, and major authors of the day such as William Morris and George Bernard Shaw published fiction, poetry, and literary criticism within it. Until recently, this corner of late-Victorian print culture has been of interest principally to historians, but literary critics have begun to take more interest in the late-Victorian radical press and in the literary cultures of socialist newspapers and journals such as the Clarion and the New Age.