In the introduction to The Other Victorians, Steven Marcus states that ''as we try to understand the past we try to understand ourselves in relation to the past'' (xix). Marcus's words, as much as they provide a rationale for historiography in general, are particularly pertinent to the fascination that the Victorian period has for contemporary audiences. We recognize ourselves in a play of similarity and difference, or, as Marcus puts it, the Victorians' ''otherness connects them to us,'' though, he cautions, ''connection is nevertheless not identity.'' While Marcus allows for historical breakthroughs, that is, for moments of radical change, he still considers Victorianism the first half of the paradigmatic bracket within which we still operate at the present time
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he insists that the transfer of culturally marginal materials into the mainstream takes place the same way today as it did a hundred years ago--''split off from what might have been expected to accompany [them]--impulses of a social revolutionary kind'' (154). In other words, what we share with the Victorians are essentially the same social, economic, and political structures, as well as a sense that cultural transformation can or will take place without affecting them in any direct or immediate way
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what makes the Victorian past so fascinating is its unique historical ability to reflect the present moment
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