I was surprised when exploring through the Victorian Illustrated books in class to find the variety of genres that they can expand to. Specifically, for the book I focused on, The House of Joy, I was intrigued to find out that it focused on adult fairytales, which is something that I would assume to be most likely intended for a younger audience, if produced today. It was interesting to see that each story began with an illustrated image, which improved my reading experience by placing a picture to help support my vision of the characters and setting. The stories all consist of strong, and somewhat mystical, vocabulary, including words such as “prince” and “fair sir”, sounding almost medieval and royal. Each story was also supported with a dedication to a woman or daughter, which suggests that there were different levels of power among genders back when this was published. Since this was released during a time period when men were considered superior to women, it further proves that men were the working ones in the household. Specifically for The House of Joy, men drew the illustrations of the book, and were also the authors of the stories. This demonstrates how there has been an incredible turn around for female authors and illustrators and shows how far they have come in terms of publishing literature.