In Victorian England, vulgarity, first used to define language use and class position, became implicated in behavior, material possessions, sexuality, and race. Victorian Vulgarity explores vulgarity's troubled history through dictionaries and grammars; essays, journalism and visual art; and fiction by Dickens, Eliot, Gissing, and Trollope. Neither dismissing nor reveling in vulgarity's myriad temptations, the contributors invite readers to consider the concept's implications for today's writers and artists.