I liked reading about how the Victorian novel rose to prominence and the different literary trends that came and went during the Victorian era. It was interesting to learn more about some of my favorite authors.
However, the book just drags on and on with really dry writing that made it hard to concentrate, and the sentences are so convoluted and long that it was difficult to follow sometimes.

My favorite part of the book was learning about "yellow novels" that became popular in railway stations. You could rent a book from a bookstand in the station, read it on the train, and return the book at your destination. But these cheap books bound in yellow got a reputation for being sensational pot-boiler novels. They were not well-written and not serious literature, but they served a purpose in making literature available at cheap prices so that anyone could read books, not just those who were wealthy enough to buy expensive editions.

The history is really interesting, but I found myself skimming some of the lengthy paragraphs about this and that publishing house and how much money they paid for the publishing rights for some manuscript. I found the business side of things to be boring.