In 1939 Virginia Woolf called for a more inclusive form of biography which would include 'the failures as well as the successes the humble as well as the illustrious'. She did so in part as a reaction against Victorian biography deemed to have been overly preoccupied with 'Great Men'. Yet a significant number of Victorians had already broken ranks to write the lives of humble unsuccessful or neglected men and women. Victorian Biography Reconsidered seeks to uncover and assess this trend.