This new study explores how evangelicalism played a vital role in the development of the Victorian novel. In contrast to those who see the evangelical movement as trivial to our histories of the novel and part of the losing side in religions battle with secularityampampnbspGood Words Evangelicalism and the Victorian Novelampampnbspexamines fiction by major writers of the nineteenth centuryThackeray Dickens Wood MacDonald Collins and Butlerand reveals the extent to which the novel was shaped by evangelical thought and practice. Rather than getting lost in historical and theological rabbit holesampampnbspGood Wordsampampnbspinvites readers to think about why evangelicalism still matters for the stories we tell about fiction in the Victorian period. The result has major implications for our understanding of the Victorian novel our conception of the relationship between nineteenthcentury literature and religion the way in which we think about evangelical culture in the modern world and our ideas about the practices and protocols of scholarly reading.