You might be wondering why a English 432 student would consult subject encyclopedias. The quick answer is that it can't hurt to make sure you have a good sense of how your research question fits in with other scholarly research that has been done--and the bibliographies at the end of encyclopedia articles are an efficient way to make sure you know who the scholars are who've been working on this topic.
Remember that tertiary sources are intended to fill in gaps in your knowledge or jumpstart your research; they should not be cited as scholarly secondary sources for your project.
Literary Research and the Victorian and Edwardian Ages, 1830-1910 by 
The Cambridge Companion to George Eliot by 
Victorian Literature and Culture by 
The Oxford Handbook of the Victorian Novel by Literature Compass publishes peer-reviewed, state-of-the-field articles from across the discipline. Review articles summarize the current scholarship on a topic and offer an analysis. They can help you identify the scholars working on your topic, recent developments, current debates, gaps in research, and also give you an idea of where the research might be headed next.
More survey articles:
Daily Life in Victorian England by 
Victorian Britain by 
The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature by 
Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature by 
The Oxford Companion to British History by 
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by 
Encyclopedia of European Social History by 
New Dictionary of the History of Ideas by 