Routledge

Andrew Maunder

Grace Moore

Beginning with Victoria's enthronement and an exploration of sensationalist accounts of attacks on the Queen, and ending with the notorious case of a fin-de-siècle killer, Victorian Crime, Madness and Sensation throws new light on nineteenth-century attitudes toward crime and 'deviance'. The essays, which draw on both canonical and liminal texts, examine the Victorian fascination with criminal psychology and pathology, engaging with real life cases alongside fictional accounts by writers as diverse as Ainsworth, Stevenson, and Stoker. Among the topics are shifting definitions of criminality and the ways in which discourses surrounding crime changed during the nineteenth century, the literal and social criminalization of particular sex acts, and the gendering of degeneration and insanity. As fascinated as they were with criminality, the Victorians were equally concerned with solving crime, and this collection also focuses on the forces of law enforcement and nineteenth-century attempts to read the criminal body as revealed in Victorian crime fiction and reportage. Contributors engage with the detective figure and his growing professionalization, while examining the role of science and technology - both at home and in the Empire - in solving cases.

Victorian Crime, Madness and Sensation

Trudi Tate

Jane Potter

Angela K Smith

Given the popular and scholarly interest in the First World War it is surprising how little contemporary literary work is available. This five-volume reset edition aims to redress this balance, making available an extensive collection of newly-edited short stories, novels and plays from 1914–19.

British Literature of World War I, Volume 2

British Literature of World War I, Volume 5

British Literature of World War I, Volume 4

British Theatre and the Great War examines how theatre in its various forms adapted itself to the new conditions of 1914-1918. Contributors discuss the roles played by the theatre industry. They draw on a range of source materials to show the different kinds of theatrical provision and performance cultures in operation not only in London but across parts of Britain and also in Australia and at the Front. As well as recovering lost works and highlighting new areas for investigation (regional theatre, prison camp theatre, troop entertainment, the threat from film, suburban theatre) the book offers revisionist analysis of how the conflict and its challenges were represented on stage at the time and the controversies it provoked. The volume offers new models for exploring the topic in an accessible, jargon-free way, and it shows how theatrical entertainment of the time can be seen as the `missing link’ in the study of First World War writing.

New Perspectives

British Theatre and the Great War, 1914 - 1919

A Literary Life

Enid Blyton

This book is a study of the best-selling writer for children Enid Blyton (1897-1968) and provides a new account of her career. It draws on Blyton’s business correspondence to give a fresh account of a misunderstood figure who for forty years was one of Britain’s most successful and powerful authors. It examines Blyton’s rise to fame in the 1920s and considers the ways in which she managed her career as a storyteller, journalist and magazine editor. There is discussion of her most famous series including the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, Malory Towers and Noddy, but attention is also given to lesser-known works including the family stories she published to acclaim in the 1940s and early 1950s, as well as her attempts to become a dramatist. The book also discusses Blyton’s fluctuating critical reputation, how she and her works were received and how Blyton the person has fared at the hands of biographers and the media.

Beginning with Victoria's enthronement and an exploration of sensationalist accounts of attacks on the Queen, and ending with the notorious case of a fin-de-siècle killer, Victorian Crime, Madness and Sensation throws new light on nineteenth-century attitudes toward crime and 'deviance'. The essays, which draw on both canonical and liminal texts, examine the Victorian fascination with criminal psychology and pathology, engaging with real life cases alongside fictional accounts by writers as diverse as Ainsworth, Stevenson, and Stoker. Among the topics are shifting definitions of criminality and the ways in which discourses surrounding crime changed during the nineteenth century, the literal and social criminalization of particular sex acts, and the gendering of degeneration and insanity. As fascinated as they were with criminality, the Victorians were equally concerned with solving crime, and this collection also focuses on the forces of law enforcement and nineteenth-century attempts to "read" the criminal body as revealed in Victorian crime fiction and reportage. Contributors engage with the detective figure and his growing professionalization, while examining the role of science and technology - both at home and in the Empire - in solving cases.

Provides a comprehensive guide to the Romantic movement, including such great writers as William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Mary Shelley.

Encyclopedia of Literary Romanticism

Most famous for his much-filmed novel Dracula, Bram Stoker was nonetheless a prolific writer. This accessible book offers an introduction to a range of his work - novels, short stories, biography, and criticism. It provides a discussion of recent scholarship on Stoker including the many attempts to write his life and find the 'real' Bram Stoker, and the lurid speculation this provokes. Moving beyond this, the author focuses on Stoker's career as a late-Victorian and Edwardian novelist in the commercial marketplace, looking at the fictional trends - horror, romance, adventure, crime - which his work encompasses. The study discusses Stoker's bid for fameas a writer, how his novels were received, and their engagement with contemporary anxieties about gender and nationhood.

Bram Stoker

Most famous for his much-filmed novel Dracula, Bram Stoker was nonetheless a prolific writer. This accessible book offers an introduction to a range of his work - novels, short stories, biography, and criticism. It provides a discussion of recent scholarship on Stoker including the many attempts to write his life and find the 'real' Bram Stoker, and the lurid speculation this provokes. Moving beyond this, the author focuses on Stoker's career as a late-Victorian and Edwardian novelist in the commercial marketplace, looking at the fictional trends - horror, romance, adventure, crime - which his work encompasses. The study discusses Stoker's bid for fame as a writer, how his novels were received, and their engagement with contemporary anxieties about gender and nationhood.

Graham Law

This new volume in the Literary Lives series focuses on the career of the popular Victorian novelist Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), and provides a new account of his professional life in the literary world of nineteenth-century Britain. It draws on recently available business and personal correspondence to establish a fresh portrait of one of Victorian Britain’s busiest authors, taking in Collins’s notoriously complicated private life and his friendship with Charles Dickens, as well his work as journalist, reviewer and playwright. New insights are given into the international dimensions of Collins’s career. There is discussion of Collins’s best-known novels, including The Woman in White, The Moonstone and Armadale, but attention is also given to lesser-known works and to Collins’s plays, which have long been neglected. The volume will appeal to all students of Wilkie Collins and also to those interested in the literary world of Victorian Britain and the social and business networks which lay at its heart.

Wilkie Collins

Nahem Yousaf

George Eliot

The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner

British Literature of World War I

This New Casebook explores the enduring significance of George Eliot's novels The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Silas Marner (1861). Eliot's radical cultural politics and the arrestingly original fictional strategies that characterise two of her most popular novels are explored from a variety of perspectives - feminist, historicist, structuralist and psychoanalytic.

A comprehensive reference to short fiction from Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Commonwealth. With approximately 450 entries, this A-to-Z guide explores the literary contributions of such writers as Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, D H Lawrence, Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, Katherine Mansfield, Martin Amis, and others.

The Facts on File Companion to the British Short Story

Written specifically for GCSE students by academics in the field, the Methuen Drama GCSE Guides conveniently gather indispensable resources and tips for successful understanding and writing all in one place, preparing students to approach their exams with confidence. Key features include a critical commentary of the play with extensive, clearly labelled analyses on themes, characters and context. They take studying drama even further with sections on dramatic technique, critical reception, related works, fascinating behind-the-scenes interviews with playwrights, directors or actors, and a helpful glossary of dramatic terms. Unmatched as a theatrical response to the First World War, R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End focuses on the experience of soldiers and the conditions in which they fought and died through a socially diverse regiment of English soldiers hiding in trenches in France. Carefully following the requirements of GCSE English Literature assessment objectives, these studies include expert advice on how to write about modern drama. With featured activities for group study and independent work, they are versatile and valuable to students and teachers alike.

Journey's End GCSE Student Guide

Provides a comprehensive reference to short fiction from Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Commonwealth, featuring some of the most popular writers and works.

Encyclopedia of the British Short Story

Ruth Robbins

Emma Liggins

A readable and up-to-date critical overview that offers new readings and maps the British short story from the 1850s to the present

Andrew Maunder

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