The author of this book argues that although we think of the Victorian era as the age of gothic, there is also a profound and persistant classical strain which runs through it, from the Greek revival in architecture at the beginning of the century to the neo-classical painters such as Lord Leighton in the late Victorian age. His discussion includes the way in which cultural influences take over from and overlay each other, and how styles become ripe, over-ripe and eventually decadent. He demonstrates that our view of the Victorian age as the age of gothic is indeed simplistic, and that the classical and the gothic were present everywhere. Richard Jenkyns is the author of The Victorians and Ancient Greece.