The modern media world came into being in the nineteenth century, when machines were harnessed to produce texts and images in unprecedented numbers. In the visual realm, new industrial techniques generated a deluge of affordable pictorial items, mass-printed photographs, posters, cartoons, and illustrations. These alluring objects of the Victorian parlor were miniaturized spectacles that served as portals onto phantasmagoric versions of 'the world.' Although new kinds of pictures transformed everyday life, these ephemeral items have received remarkably little scholarly attention. Picture World shines a welcome new light onto these critically neglected yet fascinating visual objects. They serve as entryways into the nineteenth century's key aesthetic concepts. Each chapter pairs a new type of picture with a foundational keyword in Victorian aesthetics, a familiar term reconceived through the lens of new media. 'Character' appears differently when considered with caricature, in the new comics and cartoons appearing in the mass press in the 1830s; likewise, the book approaches 'realism' through pictorial journalism; 'illustration' via illustrated Bibles; 'sensation' through carte-de-visite portrait photographs; 'the picturesque' by way of stereoscopic views; and 'decadence' through advertising posters. Picture World studies the aesthetic effects of the nineteenth century's media revolution: it uses the relics of a previous era's cultural life to interrogate the Victorian world's most deeply-held values, arriving at insights still relevant in our own media age.

"Teukolsky's ambitious and conceptually adventurous book seeks out the history of persistent representation codes within a cross-disciplinary study of Victorian new media and offers a major re-evaluation of overlooked mass-circulation visual culture. The range and detail of her study in the individual chapters is supported by an excellent introduction that offers a cross-disciplinary summary of possible critical approaches. The book is beautifully produced and surprisingly cheap, a major asset as it deserves to be read by as many Victorianists as possible." - Brian Maidment, Victorian Periodicals Review

"Picture World plunges the reader into a world of visual art that crosses the boundaries between high and low art, surveying these objects while also explaining the culture that made them and made their collection possible. A delightful achievement." - Dr. Frederick D. King, Review 19

"All in all, this is a highly valuable contribution to current scholarship in Victorian media studies and it will prove to be an enlightening read for all." - Ester Díaz Morillo, British Association for Victorian Studies Newsletter

"Picture World is a considerable achievement. The book is generously illustrated, capaciously and convincingly argued, and thoroughly researched. It will serve as reference guide, teaching tool, and source of provocative ideas to which students and researchers will often return." - Margaret Linley, Victorian Studies Vol 64.4