Lives Of Victorian Literary Figures III (Pt. 3) [Hardcover]

Ralph Pite (Editor), Aileen Christianson (Editor), Sheila McIntosh (Editor), Simon Grimble (Editor), Valerie Sanders (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 185196780X | ISBN-13: 978-1851967803 | Publication Date: January 2005

The volumes in this third set of anthologies focus on writers for whom 'the centre' was a pressing concern. Ruskin grew up in suburban London; in later life, he settled in the Lake District . Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle moved in the opposite direction - from rural Scotland to London's Cheyne Walk. Elizabeth Gaskell lived and worked near Manchester all her life; by doing so she became a writer with a national reputation who enjoyed contacts throughout London's literary world. These different trajectories are all responses to the dominance of London over Victorian literary culture and Victorian society more generally.Should one retreat and so avoid the distractions of the literary world? Should one take part in and seek to dominate that world? Should one maintain a provincial identity, neither backing away from nor immersing oneself in the capital's agenda? The lives of these authors epitomise these questions. They reveal the various different, viable ways of making a writing career that these difficulties impose.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'These exemplary anthologies will draw students and scholars back to take a closer look at these often neglected texts ... each volume is eminently, engrossingly browsable' Australasian Victorian Studies Journal

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1384 pages
• Publisher: Pickering & Chatto Ltd (January 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185196780X
• ISBN-13: 978-1851967803
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 4.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,657,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)