This book makes the claim that Victorian novels do not simply reflect professional ideology; they also scrutinize its dilemmas, contradictions, and limitations. In this volume, innovative readings of canonical texts like "Sybil, Barchester Towers, Romola, "and" Daniel Deronda" accompany groundbreaking work on less familiar texts like "Tancred "and" My Lady Ludlow" to illuminate the Victorians' own struggles with the emerging professional ideology. The Victorians' engagement with fundamental ideas of professional identity--such as autonomy, meritocracy, and the service ethic--reveal professionalism's dual basis in materialist and idealist rationalities.