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This series provides a high-quality selection of early printings of literary works, textual editions, anthologies and literary criticism which are of lasting scholarly interest. Ranging from Old English to Shakespeare to early twentieth-century work from around the world, these books offer a valuable resource for scholars in reception history, textual editing and literary studies.

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451 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Literary Studies

Page 14 of 23

Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany
  • With Interesting Reminiscences of King George the Third and Queen Charlotte
  • Volume 1
  • Mary Delany
  • Edited by Augusta Hall
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    08 November 2011
    First published in:
    1861
  • Mary Delany (née Granville, 1700–88) is best known for her cut-paper illustrations of plants - she completed nearly 1,000 of these detailed botanical pictures. Widowed after an unhappy first marriage, she lived in London, attended court, and was a favourite of George III and Queen Charlotte. After being widowed for a second time, and at the age of 74, she began her plant illustrations: failing eyesight caused her to abandon the work in 1784. Delany knew many of the leading cultural figures of the eighteenth century, including Handel and Swift. An enthusiastic correspondent, she wrote and received hundreds of letters, which were edited by her great-great-niece, Lady Llanover (1802–96). Published in 1861–2, they tell the life story of this remarkable woman, while also providing a fascinating glimpse into the world of Georgian England. Volume 1 begins with an unfinished autobiography and continues with correspondence from 1717 to 1737.

The Growth of Literature
  • Volume 1, The Ancient Literatures of Europe
  • H. Munro Chadwick, Nora K. Chadwick
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1932
  • First published between 1932 and 1940, this is a three-volume study of the historical development of literature. It explores the oral and written literatures of regions from Iceland and the British Isles, to Russia, the Balkans, Africa, India and the Pacific, placing them in their historical context and examining similarities between them. The authors discuss both ancient and recent texts, illustrating the connections within each group and considering the question of whether all literary growth is influenced by common factors. Praised on publication as '… a work that is not, probably could not be, superseded' (International Journal of Comparative Sociology), the book remains a benchmark for those studying comparative literature or the history of literary criticism. Volume 1 analyses a range of medieval British and Icelandic poetry and sagas, drawing analogies with the literature of early Greece and focusing particularly on the concept of heroic literature.

Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist
  • A Popular Illustration of the Principles of Scientific Criticism
  • Richard Green Moulton
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    03 May 2011
    First published in:
    1893
  • Written by British American critic Richard Moulton (1849–1924), this influential study of Shakespeare's dramatic technique introduces Moulton's 'prescience' of scientific criticism, an approach to literature that would later develop into modern literary theory. Moulton, who served as professor of English literature at Chicago, stated that his object was to 'claim for criticism a position amongst the inductive sciences, and to sketch in outline a plan for the dramatic side of such a critical science', arguing that Shakespeare's genius lay in his mastery of his dramatic art as much as in his deep knowledge of human nature. Published in 1893, this third edition expands significantly on the material in the first edition (1885) and the second (1888), as Moulton includes analysis of three additional Shakespearean plays, using work that had originally been presented to the New Shakespeare Society of London. Subsequent editions were produced in 1897 and 1906.

The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
  • Together with his Life, and Notes on his Lives of the Poets
  • Volume 9
  • Samuel Johnson
  • Edited by John Hawkins
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1787
  • Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 9 includes The Adventurer, the sequel to The Rambler, partly written by Johnson, papers about the famous Dictionary and his edition of the works of Shakespeare, various critical pieces, and an account of the Harleian Library. It also includes prefaces to other works, including Dodsley's The Preceptor, and Rolt's Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. (According to Boswell, Johnson did not actually read the latter work before writing the preface to it.)

The Secret Drama of Shakespeare's Sonnets
  • Gerald Massey
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1888
  • Gerald Massey's work of 1888 presented a strong argument against the many theorists who viewed Shakespeare's Sonnets as autobiographical – 'a permanent reply to Shakespeare's misinterpreters'. Beginning by outlining the known background and context of the Sonnets, Massey proceeds to wage what he terms his 'battle against fictions, fallacies, forgeries, and groundless assumptions'. Who were the Sonnets addressed to, if anyone, and what is the significance of the inscription in the edition of 1609? What is the correct arrangement of the Sonnets, and why did Shakespeare himself give personal testimony to their 'purity'? Following detailed descriptions of the many different theories, Massey provides close readings and analysis of the Sonnets themselves to dispute the autobiographical claims, and to demonstrate that the Sonnets are 'partly personal and partly dramatic'.

The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
  • Together with his Life, and Notes on his Lives of the Poets
  • Volume 1
  • Samuel Johnson
  • Edited by John Hawkins
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1787
  • Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 1 is entirely devoted to a biography of Johnson by Hawkins, his close friend. Although Boswell's 1791 Life is much better known, Hawkins had been acquainted with Johnson for far longer, and was present at his death. Although his narrative is less colourful than that of Boswell, he had a better understanding of some aspects of Johnson's character, especially regarding his religious beliefs, and Boswell did not hesitate to borrow from this work.

The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
  • Together with his Life, and Notes on his Lives of the Poets
  • Volume 7
  • Samuel Johnson
  • Edited by John Hawkins
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1787
  • Dr Samuel Johnson (1709–84) is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of English literature, as a poet, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. This collected edition of his works - commissioned by the publisher within hours of Johnson's death, such was his celebrity - was published in 1787 in eleven volumes, edited by his literary executor, the musicologist Sir John Hawkins. Volume 7 contains the final part of The Rambler, the periodical published by Johnson twice a week between 1750 and 1752. Modelled on Addison's Spectator, the essays address a wide range of social, religious, political and literary themes, and are not exclusively by Johnson himself: there are contributions by others, particularly women writers such as Hester Chapone and Elizabeth Carter. The Rambler adopted an 'elevated' style, and topics range from criticism of the emerging novel genre to discussions of humanitarian issues such as prostitution and capital punishment.

The Life and Works of Goethe
  • With Sketches of His Age and Contemporaries from Published and Unpublished Sources
  • Volume 2
  • George Henry Lewes
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1858
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was one of Germany's greatest intellectuals. He exerted enormous influence in many fields, through works ranging from literature, linguistics and philosophy to the theory of colours and the biological sciences. Goethe's poetry and plays inspired music and opera as well as later writers, and his thought influenced philosophers including Nietzsche and Jung. Darwin himself referred to Goethe's botanical studies. The British philosopher and literary critic G. H. Lewes (1817–1878) carried out research for this hugely successful two-volume biography during a trip to Berlin and Weimar in 1854. First published in 1855, and reissued here in the second, 1858 edition, it draws on personal letters and recollections provided by Goethe's closest friends, family and colleagues to construct a portrait of this polymath, and assess how his personal relationships shaped his legacy to the world. Volume 2 covers the period from 1779 until Goethe's death.

Poets and Dreamers
  • Studies and Translations from the Irish
  • Augusta Gregory
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    18 November 2010
    First published in:
    1903
  • Lady (Augusta) Gregory (1852–1932) was a dramatist and folklorist. Along with the poet W. B. Yeats she was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and co-founded the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Born Isabella Augusta Persse in County Galway, she belonged to the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, which was closely associated with colonial rule. She married Sir William Gregory in 1880. Her conversion to Irish cultural nationalism began after the death of her husband and was heavily influenced by her visit in 1892 to Inisheer, one of the Aran Islands, where she learnt Irish and the Hiberno-English dialect of Kiltartin. Poets and Dreamers was her first publication and contained translations of the Irish-language poet Anthony Raftery, folk-tales, and plays by the Gaelic scholar and future first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=gregau

Correspondence of Lord Byron
  • With a Friend, Including Letters to his Mother
  • George Gordon Byron
  • Edited by R. C. Dallas
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    29 September 2011
    First published in:
    1825
  • The English writer Robert Charles Dallas (1754–1824) was a relative by marriage of Lord Byron (1788–1824), with whom he maintained a 'frequent' correspondence between 1808 and 1814. As a friend and the editor of some of Byron's poems, Dallas had been entrusted with several of the poet's personal letters. First published in France in 1825, this book contains letters Byron wrote to his mother while travelling across Europe as a young man, his correspondence with Dallas, and Dallas' 1824 'Recollections' of the poet. It includes a long statement by Dallas's son, describing the disputes that arose between Dallas and Byron's executors concerning the publication of the letters. Intended by Dallas as a 'whole faithful memoir' of Byron's life during the period of their correspondence, this book provides a vivid portrait of the poet and reveals how he was perceived by a close, though much older, friend.

The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson
  • Author of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison
  • Volume 4
  • Samuel Richardson
  • Edited by Anna Laetitia Barbauld
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1804
  • Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), the English writer and printer best known for his epistolary novels, including Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1748), had preserved copies of his extensive correspondence with a view to its eventual publication, and these volumes, edited by Anna Laetitia Barbauld and first published in 1804, contain her selection from his papers. Richardson became a printer's apprentice in 1706 and for the rest of his life managed a successful printing business in addition to writing his highly popular and influential novels. After the success of Pamela, Richardson regularly corresponded with leading contemporary literary figures including Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson. The letters provide fascinating insights into Richardson's life and literary and social activities, as well as discussions of current affairs. Volume 4 contains correspondence with (among others) Dr and Mrs Delany and Thomas and Frances Sheridan, the parents of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

George Eliot
  • A Critical Study of her Life, Writings and Philosophy
  • George Willis Cooke
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    16 September 2010
    First published in:
    1883
  • American Unitarian minister George Willis Cooke (1848–1923) worked for almost thirty years in Unitarian churches across the United States before turning full-time to scholarly pursuits in 1900. Cooke, a voracious reader who was largely self-taught, attended Meadville Theological School in Illinois but never graduated. A radical in theology and politics, he was drawn to the transcendentalist authors and in 1881 published a critical study of the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Cooke's George Eliot: A Critical Study of her Life, Writings and Philosophy (1883) probably emerged from those same philosophical impulses. The book was published just after Blind's biography, but Cooke asserts that with a small exception his work was complete when hers appeared; moreover, his study prioritises the act of 'interpreting and criticising [Eliot's] teachings' over the details of her life, and the book's organisation reflects this hierarchy, giving insights into the contemporary reception of George Eliot.

Illustrations of Northern Antiquities from the Earlier Teutonic and Scandinavian Romances
  • Being an Abstract of the Book of Heroes, and Nibelungen Lay
  • Edited and translated by Henry William Weber, Robert Jamieson, Walter Scott
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    27 October 2011
    First published in:
    1814
  • The poems, sagas and ballads of early Germanic and Scandinavian societies were a growing field of study in the English-speaking world around the turn of the nineteenth century. A trio of Scotsmen - the writer Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), antiquarian Robert Jamieson (1772–1844) and literary scholar Henry William Weber (1783–1818) - decided to contribute to this field by bringing together their work on 'romances' from the Old German, Danish, Swedish and Icelandic languages, claiming that these poems and tales 'offer a new and interesting subject of speculation to the English reader'. In this volume, published in 1814, each editor contributes a related scholarly essay, but the bulk of the book is taken up with the translated tales, including the German Song of the Nibelungen. This work is an important early contribution by leading Scots scholars to the study and dissemination of such Northern European literary forms.

The Life of John Ruskin
  • Volume 1, 1819–1860
  • Edward Tyas Cook
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    01 April 2010
    First published in:
    1911
  • In 1911, the New York Times alerted its readers to the forthcoming 'authoritative' biography of Ruskin with the words 'out of a life's devotion to Ruskin and the Herculean task of editing the definitive Ruskin, Mr E. T. Cook is to give us a definitive Ruskin biography also. It will have the authority of a brilliant Oxford scholar, combined with the charm and lightness of a style which makes Mr Cook one of the first of English journalists'. Cook had been given complete access to Ruskin's diaries, notebooks and letters by his literary executors, and Ruskin's family and friends co-operated fully with him. His depth of knowledge of, and sympathy for, his subject make Cook's biography a vital tool for anyone wishing to understand Ruskin's extraordinary achievements in so many fields. Volume 1 covers the period to 1860, the year in which the final volume of Modern Painters was published.

Recollections of a Long Life
  • Volume 4, 1829–1834
  • John Cam Hobhouse
  • Edited by Charlotte Hobhouse Carleton
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1910
  • John Cam Hobhouse, Baron Broughton (1786–1869), politician and prolific memoirist, is today best remembered for his close friendship with Lord Byron, and as the inventor of the phrase 'His Majesty's Opposition'. He travelled extensively in Europe with Byron, and acted both as his best man and as his executor after Byron's early death in 1824. He began his political career as a radical, but gradually moved to a much more conservative viewpoint. This six-volume work is a revision of his 1865 privately printed memoir, Some Account of a Long Life, expanded by his daughter from his diaries and letters, and published between 1909 and 1911. Volume 4 covers the period 1829–34, during which the death of George IV and the passing of the 1832 Reform Bill were among the most significant events. Hobhouse also recalls meeting William IV, and being impressed by the young Princess Victoria.

The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson
  • Author of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison
  • Volume 5
  • Samuel Richardson
  • Edited by Anna Laetitia Barbauld
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1804
  • Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), the English writer and printer best known for his epistolary novels, including Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1748), had preserved copies of his extensive correspondence with a view to its eventual publication, and these volumes, edited by Anna Laetitia Barbauld and first published in 1804, contain her selection from his papers. Richardson became a printer's apprentice in 1706 and for the rest of his life managed a successful printing business in addition to writing his highly popular and influential novels. After the success of Pamela, Richardson regularly corresponded with leading contemporary literary figures including Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson. The letters provide fascinating insights into Richardson's life and literary and social activities, as well as discussions of current affairs. Volume 5 contains his correspondence with (among many others) Samuel Johnson.

Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence
  • Volume 3
  • Henry Crabb Robinson
  • Edited by Thomas Sadler
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    06 January 2011
    First published in:
    1869
  • Henry Crabb Robinson (1775–1867) was a lawyer, journalist and indefatigable diarist, who was acquainted with almost all the important figures in English and European cultural circles. His surviving writings amount to almost one hundred volumes, from which this selection was compiled in 1869. He studied at Jena where he became acquainted with Goethe and Schiller, and became foreign editor for The Times, despatching eyewitness reports on the Battle of Corunna. He travelled to Switzerland and Italy with Wordsworth, and his reminiscences of William Blake are an important source of information on that visionary. He attended Coleridge's public lectures, recording not only the content but anecdotes about the audiences. Other activities included helping found the Athenaeum Club and University College, London. The combination of anecdote and critical appraisal of the notables about whom he writes makes the diaries a valuable source for the culture of the nineteenth century.

Thoughts and Notes at Home and Abroad
  • Elihu Burritt
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1868
  • American philanthropist Elihu Burritt (1810–79) was involved in and lectured widely on many causes, including the abolition of slavery, temperance, and world peace. Known as the 'learned blacksmith' because of his early training in the trade, he was eventually appointed US consul in Birmingham, England, from 1865 to 1870. In addition to his campaigning, Burritt was a prolific writer, producing books and articles on a range of subjects. In this work, published in 1868, he assembles a collection of his writings published between 1850 and 1855 in a variety of periodicals. This compilation covers a wide range of topics - from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to the 'Anarchy of Governments' - drawing from his experiences in Europe and in the USA. Much of Burritt's writing is devoted to the issue of international relations, and to his desire for a 'Congress of Nations' devoted to ending conflict in Europe.

A Hand-Book Index to the Works of Shakespeare
  • Including References to the Phrases, Manners, Customs, Proverbs, Songs, Particles, etc., which Are Used or Alluded to by the Great Dramatist
  • James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1866
  • Published in 1866, this is a meticulous, encyclopaedic listing of almost every word, place and character in Shakespeare's works. A must-have for every student of English literature, it is also an unparalleled guide for those left in the dark by Shakespearean English. James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820–1889), a renowned scholar, antiquarian, and collector of books on Shakespeare, provided entries for even the manners, customs and proverbs of the Bard's time. Despite the author's disclaimer about some of the 'hastily' prepared entries, the Index remains a monumental scholarly feat of the late nineteenth century. Halliwell not only cross-referenced every entry with the play it appeared in, but also included a list of actors who originally performed in the plays, together with locations and plot sources. With over 5000 annotated references, A Shakespeare Index is still one of the most practical and instructive guides to understanding Shakespearean English.

Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington
  • Marguerite Blessington
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    27 October 2011
    First published in:
    1834
  • When the Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) met the poet Lord Byron (1788–1824) in Genoa in 1823 she noted that 'the impression of the first few minutes disappointed me'. Despite this precarious start, they struck up a friendship and met nearly every day for two months. Byron had been living in the Italian port city since the previous autumn and Blessington and her family had arrived in April 1823. Her account of their conversations was not published until 1834, a decade after Byron's death. Blessington expresses candid opinions about the poet in this work, writing that Byron 'is a strange mélange of good and evil, the predominancy of either depending wholly on the humour he may happen to be in'. Through her frankness, the author - herself a well-known writer who hosted a distinguished literary salon - also reveals much about herself and the literary world she and Byron inhabited.

Page 14 of 23