This volume gathers together articles by leading international scholars of nineteenth-century culture in Europe. The contributions were originally presented at the conference ‘Textual Intersections in the Nineteenth Century: European Literatures, Histories and Arts’ held at Cardiff University in July 2001. The book explores depictions of gender, sexuality and the family in literature and is interdisciplinary in scope. It includes pieces on art history, book illustration, dance, music and philosophy as these intersect with literature in the portrayal of desire in nineteenth-century Europe. Each article attempts to foreground the links between genres, national traditions, and differing art forms in the exploration of representations of desire in nineteenth-century European literature.