Caroline Norton’s forgotten novel, which has remained unpublished until now, tells of the perils of courtship facing a naïve young girl Alixe, who has been launched onto the London social season. Her encounters with both a worthy and an undesirable suitor open an intriguing window onto the fashionable society of the 1820s in which Love in "the World" takes place. In placing her heroine in these predicaments Norton was able to draw upon her own experiences of the bon ton, as the time in which the novel is set coincides with her first ball in March 1826, when she burst upon the scene with all her beauty and brilliance, later recalling, “I came out [...] to find all London at my feet.” She believed that London could be as callous as the metropolitan social scene might prove treacherous, and in alerting the reader to the dangers of fashionable society she makes ample use of her own observations as a debutante at her first London season. In a highly readable and coherent narrative with an indeterminate ending, which throws a spotlight onto her life and times, the plot of Love in 'the World' initially follows a pattern broadly representative of her own experience before developing in unexpected and surprising ways.
As an initial section of the novel is missing, it is necessary to at first set the scene: see Main Description. The extant novel begins with Alixe's cousin Charles, with whom she was raised and who has recently returned from sea, declaring his love for Alixe. She, however, views Charles as a brother and is already romantically committed to a high-living Regency dandy and politician, Everard Price, whom she had met and fallen in love with during her first London season. Tensions rise after Charles accidentally damages an item of jewellery given to Alixe by Everard's sister Emily. As Alixe leaves the St Clairs' country estate with her aunt for a second season, the omniscient author introduces the back story that will explain in detail her heroine's first season. A year previously Alixe and Lady St Clair had visited London to stay with the latter's aunt, who introduced them both to London society. This encompassed the pretty but contrasting sisters, Annette and Pamela Aimwell, and the more mature Emily Price (possibly based on Norton herself). Alixe is transfixed by both Emily and her brother Everard, who makes a play for his sister's new friend, throwing over Annette Aimwell and, when Emily paints Alixe's portrait, ensures that she is portrayed wearing a wedding ring. After the death of their mother, the Prices decide to recuperate with friends at Geneva. It is at this point, between seasons, that Charles St Clair re-enters the narrative, which has by this time caught up with the novel's opening scenes. As the next season opens, news filters through that the Aimwells' brother has killed the villainous Lord Darlies due to his failure to honour a marital obligation to Pamela, in a duel. We learn that Darlies was also largely responsible, out of jealousy, for the early death of an admirer of Emily Price, who since this loss has remained determinedly single. Emily and her brother arrive in London with the charismatic Honorine de Falcone and her husband, their hosts at Geneva. Alixe is frustrated by Everard's obvious fascination with Honorine but impressed by his debut speech in the House of Commons (observed from the ladies' Ventilation room situated over the chamber), to which he had been elected the previous year. She continues to maintain a distance between herself and Charles (whom she still loves strictly as a sister) and becomes friends with Honorine, despite Everard's increasing preference for the older woman. He is involved in a serious accident due to his inability even to visit Alixe without first driving past Honorine's house. Harry Dunstane's reputation is entirely destroyed (he had already been dismissed as an MP for bribing voters) when he is discovered to have ordered the poisoning of a racehorse, the favourite in a forthcoming race, having bet on the horse's rival. Subsequently, he attempts to murder another racegoer, who had discovered his crime and shoots Everard in the arm while seeking to elude capture. During his recovery he continues his relationship with Honorine and at the end of the novel, with Emily's encouragement, Alixe confronts the him and releases him from his 'voluntary engagement' to her. Afterwards, Emily assures her friend that she has done the right thing and explains that as a woman 'of the world' (reflecting the novel's title) bewitched by 'false glare and excitement of an all-engrossing vanity', Honorine would never voluntarily relinquish Everard (or abandon her husband). The reader is left wondering whether Alixe should have followed Emily's advice and what might subsequently befall them both.
This fascinating volume reproduces the letters and journal of Lady Susan Ramsay (1837-1898), the elder daughter of the Marquess of Dalhousie, Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856. The correspondence was written over a two-year period: commencing with Susan’s positive response to her father’s request that she join him in Calcutta, following the death of her mother; and concluding with Susan’s arrival with her father at Southampton. Lady Susan was still only 17 when she arrived in India, and was therefore the youngest person to take up the role of vicereine of India. Her letters and journal represent the unique viewpoint of a highly intelligent, witty, articulate and unprejudiced young woman expressed from locations that range from Osborne on the Isle of Wight to Seringapatam in Mysore. The detail, maturity and inventive quality of her writing invites comparison with that of Emily Eden, Emily Metcalfe, Charlotte Canning and other prominent early Victorian women. Accompanied by extensive introductions and annotations by Ross Nelson, this volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of Imperial History.
'Tell me, Muse, of the man of many turns, who was driven far and wide after he had sacked the sacred city of Troy' Twenty years after setting out to fight in the Trojan War, Odysseus is yet to return home to Ithaca. His household is in disarray: a horde of over 100 disorderly and arrogant suitors are vying to claim Odysseus' wife Penelope, and his young son Telemachus is powerless to stop them. Meanwhile, Odysseus is driven beyond the limits of the known world, encountering countless divine and earthly challenges. But Odysseus is 'of many wiles' and his cunning and bravery eventually lead him home, to reclaim both his family and his kingdom. The Odyssey rivals the Iliad as the greatest poem of Western culture and is perhaps the most influential text of classical literature. This elegant and compelling new translation is accompanied by a full introduction and notes that guide the reader in understanding the poem and the many different contexts in which it was performed and read.
“A man is the sum of his misfortunes.” —William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner’s provocative and enigmatic 1929 novel, The Sound and the Fury, is widely acknowledged as one of the most important English-language novels of the twentieth century. This revised and expanded Norton Critical Edition builds on the strengths of its predecessors while focusing new attention on both the novel’s contemporary reception and its rich cultural and historical contexts. The text for the Third Edition is again that of the corrected text scrupulously prepared by Noel Polk, whose textual note precedes the novel. David Minter’s annotations, designed to assist readers with obscure words and allusions, have been retained. “Contemporary Reception,” new to the Third Edition, considers the broad range of reactions to Faulkner’s extraordinary novel on publication. Michael Gorra’s headnote sets the stage for assessments by Evelyn Scott, Henry Nash Smith, Clifton P. Fadiman, Dudley Fitts, Richard Hughes, and Edward Crickmay. New materials by Faulkner (“The Writer and His Work”) include letters to Malcolm Cowley about The Portable Faulkner and Faulkner’s Nobel Prize for Literature address. “Cultural and Historical Contexts” begins with Michael Gorra’s insightful headnote, which is followed by seven seminal considerations—five of them new to the Third Edition—of southern history, literature, and memory. Together, these works—by C. Vann Woodward, Richard H. King, Richard Gray, William Alexander Percy, Lillian Smith, William James, and Henri Bergson—provide readers with important contexts for understanding the novel. “Criticism” represents eighty-five years of scholarly engagement with The Sound and the Fury. New to the Third Edition are essays by Eric Sundquist, Noel Polk, Doreen Fowler, Richard Godden, Stacy Burton, and Maria Truchan-Tataryn. A Chronology of Faulkner’s life and work is newly included along with an updated Selected Bibliography.
“A man is the sum of his misfortunes.” —William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner’s provocative and enigmatic 1929 novel, The Sound and the Fury, is widely acknowledged as one of the most important English-language novels of the twentieth century. This revised and expanded Norton Critical Edition builds on the strengths of its predecessors while focusing new attention on both the novel’s contemporary reception and its rich cultural and historical contexts. The text for the Third Edition is again that of the corrected text scrupulously prepared by Noel Polk, whose textual note precedes the novel. David Minter’s annotations, designed to assist readers with obscure words and allusions, have been retained. “Contemporary Reception,” new to the Third Edition, considers the broad range of reactions to Faulkner’s extraordinary novel on publication. Michael Gorra’s headnote sets the stage for assessments by Evelyn Scott, Henry Nash Smith, Clifton P. Fadiman, Dudley Fitts, Richard Hughes, and Edward Crickmay. New materials by Faulkner (“The Writer and His Work”) include letters to Malcolm Cowley about The Portable Faulkner and Faulkner’s Nobel Prize for Literature address. “Cultural and Historical Contexts” begins with Michael Gorra’s insightful headnote, which is followed by seven seminal considerations—five of them new to the Third Edition—of southern history, literature, and memory. Together, these works—by C. Vann Woodward, Richard H. King, Richard Gray, William Alexander Percy, Lillian Smith, William James, and Henri Bergson—provide readers with important contexts for understanding the novel. “Criticism” represents eighty-five years of scholarly engagement with The Sound and the Fury. New to the Third Edition are essays by Eric Sundquist, Noel Polk, Doreen Fowler, Richard Godden, Stacy Burton, and Maria Truchan-Tataryn. A Chronology of Faulkner’s life and work is newly included along with an updated Selected Bibliography.
This much-anticipated Norton Critical Edition of Shakespeare’s best-known play is based on the Second Quarto, widely agreed to be the most authoritative early text. By carefully selecting extracts from sources, scholars, and scriptwriters, Gordon McMullan tells a series of stories about Romeo and Juliet, globally and from their legend's origins to the present day. The Norton Critical Edition includes: · Introductory materials and explanatory annotations by Gordon McMullan as well as numerous images. · Sources and early rewritings by Luigi Da Porto, Matteo Bandello, Pierre Boaistuau, Kareen Seidler, and Thomas Otway, among others. · Critical readings and later rewritings spanning four centuries and including those by Stanley Wells, Wendy Wall, Dympna C. Callaghan, Jill L. Levenson, Nia?h Cusack, David Tennant, and Courtney Lehmann. · A Selected Bibliography.
This perennially popular Norton Critical Edition has been revised to reflect the most current scholarly approaches to The Scarlet Letter—Hawthorne’s most widely read novel—as well as to the five short prose works—“Mrs. Hutchinson,” “Endicott and the Red Cross,” “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “The Birth-mark”—that closely relate to the 1850 novel. This Second Norton Critical Edition also includes: · Revised and expanded explanatory footnotes, a new preface, and a note on the text by Leland S. Person. · Key passages from Hawthorne’s notebooks and letters that suggest the close relationship between his private and public writings · Seven new critical essays by Brook Thomas, Michael Ryan, Thomas R. Mitchell, Jay Grossman, Jamie Barlowe, John Ronan, and John F. Birk. · A Chronology and revised and expanded Selected Bibliography.
The text of Pride and Prejudice is the 1813 first edition text. "Backgrounds and Sources" includes biographical portraits of Austen by members of her family and by acclaimed biographers Claire Tomalin and David Nokes. Seventeen of Austen’s letters--eight of them new to the Third Edition--allow readers to glimpse the close-knit society that was Austen’s world, both in life and in her writing. Samples of Austen’s early writing allow readers to trace her growth as a writer as well as to read her fiction comparatively. "Criticism" features nineteen assessments of the novel, seven of them new to the Third Edition. Among them is an interview with Colin Firth on the recent BBC television adaptation of the novel. Also included are pieces by Richard Whately, Margaret Oliphant, Richard Simpson, D. W. Harding, Dorothy Van Ghent, Alistair Duckworth, Stuart Tave, Marilyn Butler, Nina Auerbach, Susan Morgan, Claudia L. Johnson, Susan Fraiman, Deborah Kaplan, Tara Goshal Wallace, Cheryl L. Nixon, David Spring, Edward Ahearn, and Donald Gray. A Chronology-new to the Third Edition-and a Selected Bibliography are also included.
