Book excerpt: This volume includes a fully annotated edition of Maxwell Gray’s highly successful novel of 1886. A bestseller of its day, The Silence of Dean Maitland combines evocative descriptions of the English rural landscape, in the mould of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy, with a gripping plot reminiscent of the best sensation novels of the era. It was subsequently adapted for the stage and the screen. In addition to the main text, three specially commissioned scholarly articles discuss its significance as a novel, as well as its theatrical and cinematic adaptations. Students, researchers, and fans of Victorian literature will delight in rediscovering this forgotten classic—the fictional world of which is based on the Isle of Wight. Those with an interest in English landscape, crime and punishment, and questions of moral choice, particularly in an era profoundly impacted by the research and theories of Charles Darwin, will also find it a compelling read.