IntroductionPART I. DAWN1. From Dawn Island to Heart of Darkness2. Bringing Up the Empire: Captain Marryats MidshipmenPART II. NOON3. Thackeray's India4. Black Swans; or, Botany Bay Eclogues5. The New Crusades6. The Genealogy of the Myth of the "Dark Continent"7. The Well at Cawnpore: Literary Representations of the Indian Mutiny of 1857PART III. DUSK8. Imperial Gothic: Atavism and the Occult in the British Adventure Novel, 1880-19149. Epilogue: Kurtz's "Darkness" and Conrad's Heart of DarknessNotesIndex

A major contribution to the cultural and literary history of the Victorian age, this book maps the complex relationship between Victorian literary forms, genres, and theories and imperialist, racist ideology