Pets and Domesticity in Victorian Literature and Culture: Animality, Queer Relations, and the Victorian Family

Published in 2015 by Routledge, this academic monograph emerged from a broader shift in Victorian studies toward critical animal studies and the history of the domestic sphere. Monica Flegel sought to challenge traditional readings of the Victorian family by foregrounding the role of non-human animals, arguing that pets served as essential third parties that facilitated queer relationality and alternative kinship structures outside the heteronormative ideal.

The book is a product of contemporary scholarship that integrates literary analysis with historical cultural critique. Flegel examines a wide array of period texts, from canonical novels to advice manuals, to demonstrate how the presence of pets mediated power dynamics and domestic intimacy. It was received as a nuanced contribution to the field, noted for its focus on the intersection of animality and identity politics in the nineteenth century.