This is a new selection of five English nineteenth-century plays, none of which has been recently available. In the case of The Lights o’ London , a famous drama of the 1880s, no printed text has ever before been published. Each of the plays represents the three dominant dramatic forms of the Victorian era: melodrama, farce and comedy. All were extremely popular with audiences, and much of the vigour, excitement and variety of dramatic expression of their time can be found in these texts.