My initial thought towards the course after our introductory class was interest. I've taken previous classes in the Victorian period but while those were focused on the text at the time, I haven't studied many aspects of the illustrations. I am looking forward to discussing imagery and illustrations though. I've taken a class in the past where we focused on illustrations and paintings and was interested in how to critically view an image and I'm looking forward to doing that in this class as well. While many of these texts are new to me, I did recognize a few. Namely Goblin Market from a previous class I took on nineteenth-century literature where we discussed the poem and its major themes. I'm looking forward to diving into the use of the images in relation to the text as well as the images on their own. The other text I am familiar with is "A Christmas Carol" but that's mainly because I love the movie adaptations.
I was surprised to learn that Victorian Illustrated books were originally designed for adults though since, as mentioned in class, now we mainly see illustrated books marketed towards children. The only time we see any sort of “illustrated book” marketed towards adults would be graphic novels. Overall I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone else's thoughts are throughout this semester and I’m looking forward to this course.