Introduction

Unlike the distinguished Special Issues published by Romanticism on the Net in the past, this is a not a “special issue” because of the topical focus of its essays. But it is special. It marks the first Victorian publication to appear under the auspices of the journal. In the event, Romanticism on the Net has made the decision to publish Victorian articles from now on. With this publication, the journal’s title is changing from RoN to RaVoN (Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net). The essays are notable for the originality of their content and, in certain cases, for the critical methodologies they put into play. Stephen Arata recovers the arresting and badly neglected Stevenson novel The Wreckers and Nicholas Frankel and Herbert Tucker do the same for the poetry of George Meredith and Charles Doughty. While Augusta Webster’s verse has recently enjoyed a revival after years of inattention, Natalie Houston’s study of the 1870 Portraits volume gives a fresh reading of the book in terms of its status as material object. A similar critical method organizes William McKelvy’s formidably learned study of the cultural history of “The Lady of Shalott,” as it does Andrew Stauffer’s essay – focused on Dickens – of Victorian anxieties about the material bases of culture itself. The concluding essay, by Bethany Nowviskie, requires special comment since it involves her critical reflection on what is being forecast in an online publication like this one. Her piece reflects practically on the significant critical and scholarly opportunities that are emerging with our new digital resources. It springs from the formal release in February 2007 of NINES – the Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-century Electronic Scholarship (www.nines.org). RoN and now RaVoN are integrated with the NINES environment, and Nowviskie’s essay describes how this integration will greatly enhance the work of scholars and educators whose research and publication are carried out in online instruments like RaVoN.