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Early in the twentieth century, public interest in Jane Austen (1775-1817) was considerable. Although the popularity of her work had remained modest in her lifetime, she was sufficiently well known by the centenary of her death to have provoked toxic reviews from Henry James and Mark Twain along with the reserved support of E. M. Forster. Previous biographies had been riddled with inaccuracies: she was called 'narrow', was said to have disliked children and animals, and to have led a quiet, almost monastic life. Many of these mistakes could be traced back to the unashamedly idealised biography written by her nephew, but while contrary accounts emerged later in the form of her letters, the old misapprehensions endured. In this neglected addition to Austen literature, first published in 1920, Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh (1838-1922) corrects many of these errors, advocating a closer critical reading of her great aunt's novels.

Upon the restoration of Charles II, theatre burst back into popularity across the stages of England. For the first time since the rise of Cromwell, it was possible to make a living from writing verse, and the theatres attracted poets in their dozens. One of them was the young John Dryden (1631-1700). In this sprightly 1826 biography, reissued here in one volume, Walter Scott (1771-1832) brings Dryden's work, philosophy and historical context vividly to life. He begins with Dryden's literary origins in the Restoration theatre, exploring the flops and then the successes that earned the poet his laurels, and continues with a detailed analysis of his later work, including the unstaged opera The State of Innocence as well as Mac Flecknoe, the cornerstone of Restoration satire. A lively critic, Scott is unafraid to write off Anglo-Saxon poetry, insult grammarians and illuminate Dryden's less admirable qualities.

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.

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, William John Thoms (1803-85) pursued literary and bibliographical interests and conversed with the likes of Thomas Macaulay and Charles Dickens. Most notably, he coined the term 'folklore' in 1846 and founded the scholarly periodical Notes and Queries in 1849. Having been published separately, these three essays on Shakespeare were brought together in this 1865 work. 'Shakespeare in Germany' (1840) spells out how German drama was influenced by English playwrights and by English actors performing plays in Germany from the late sixteenth century onwards. 'The Folk-Lore of Shakespeare' (1847) considers fairy lore and names, with particular attention paid to the characters of Puck and Queen Mab. In 'Was Shakespeare Ever a Soldier?' (1859), Thoms acknowledges that little is known for sure about Shakespeare's life, but careful scrutiny of the evidence has made him 'morally certain' that the dramatist had seen military service.

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.

J. Tyrwhitt Brooks was a pseudonym of the nineteenth-century publisher and journalist, Henry Vizetelly (1820-94). Born in London, Vizetelly was apprenticed to a wood engraver as a young child. He entered the printing business and helped found two successful but short-lived newspapers, the Pictorial Times and the Illustrated Times. His Four Months among the Gold-Finders, published in 1849, was a commercial and critical success on both sides of the Atlantic. It purported to be a genuine diary about the Californian Gold Rush, and was widely accepted as such. However, he admits in his 1893 autobiography, Glances Back Through Seventy Years (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection) that it was an elaborate hoax. The supposed author was a doctor (whose testimony would be considered reliable) who had found and then lost a fortune. The Times reviewed it enthusiastically and at length as a morality tale for its time.

From fables to fairy tales, romances to nursery rhymes, this highly influential 1932 study analyses the evolution of children's literature. Publisher and writer F. J. Harvey Darton (1878-1936) draws upon his family's involvement in children's publishing since the late eighteenth century, his knowledge of medieval literature, and his own extensive collection of children's books to present the first account of English children's literature seen as a continuous whole. Setting children's books in their historical context, the work reflects much about the history of English social life as well as providing an in-depth perspective on the genre - in the author's words 'a chronicle of the English people in their capacity of parents, guardians and educators of children'. A classic and authoritative study for anyone interested in the history of children's literature, Darton's book remains an invaluable source of information on the genre.

Women novelists dominated the market in Victorian times, covering all genres from the mainstream to the Gothic, religious and sensational. Some are now classic household names whilst others, popular in their time, lie neglected on the shelves. This collection of appraisals of female writers by female writers was published in 1897 as a contribution to the celebrations of Queen Victoria as the longest reigning British monarch. The brief is exact: only those whose work was done after the Queen's accession and who were dead would be included. Nonetheless, the range is wide and includes essays on the Brontes, George Eliot and Mrs Gaskell, by Margaret Oliphant, Eliza Lynn Linton and Ada Ellen Bayly respectively, as well as appraisals of Catherine Crowe, Mrs Archer Clive and Mrs Henry Wood (author of East Lynne), by Adeline Sergeant, and the children's authors Charlotte Tucker and Juliana Ewing by Emma Marshall.

Assembled in 1891 by Sir Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), this collection of John Keats' correspondence contains 164 letters written to the poet's family and friends during his short life. Colvin was at various times Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. He had a long-standing interest in Keats and eventually published a biography of the celebrated poet (also reissued in this series) in 1917. Among the letters included here are those written to Keats' publisher John Taylor, his sister Fanny Keats, his close friend Charles Armitage Brown, the artist Benjamin Haydon, writers John Hamilton Reynolds and Leigh Hunt and many others, providing a rich insight into the poet's character. The book also includes an explanatory preface containing background information and brief biographical sketches of Keats' correspondents.

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 melange 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.

A leading figure in Romanticism and a political campaigner committed to social reform, Lord Byron (1788-1824) is regarded as one of the greatest of British poets. First published in 1922, this two-volume work is a compilation of letters Byron wrote between 1808 and 1824 to some of his close friends, including Lady Melbourne, John Cam Hobhouse, a fellow-student at Cambridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The introduction and biographical notes by the publisher John Murray IV (1851-1928), grandson of Byron's own publisher John Murray II, supplement the letters and restore their narrative thread. Volume 2 features the letters Byron wrote from 1816 until his death. It focuses on Byron's exile in Italy and his involvement in the Greek independence movement. Three appendices provide additional perspectives, and include letters from Anne Isabella Milbanke (to whom Byron was briefly married), and his rejected lover Lady Caroline Lamb.

Mark Pattison's Memoirs, compiled during his last illness and published posthumously in 1885, recount the academic's fascinating, if difficult, life. Highly regarded for his learning, Pattison (1813-84) spent most of his adult life in Oxford, first as a student, then a tutor, and eventually, from 1861, as Rector of Lincoln College. He was a close associate of Newman and the Tractarians during the 1840s, though he later tended towards agnosticism. During the 1850s he made several visits to German universities, and developed an interest in early modern Protestant thought. He later edited works by Pope and Milton. Pattison's Memoirs paint a vivid though often bitter portrait of life in Victorian Oxford. They describe his incompetent tutors, his disillusionment with the Oxford Movement, and vicious academic rivalries. Pattison would not permit changes to 'soften' the impact, but his editor omitted certain passages that might 'wound the feelings of the living'.

The biographer and novelist E. J. Trelawny (1792-1881) published Recollections in 1858. It is a memoir of the time Trelawny spent in the Mediterranean with the Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and Lord Byron (1788-1824) from 1822 until the early deaths of both poets. Trelawny's vivid and personal account quickly became popular, comfortably out-selling other biographies, and was republished in 1878 under the title Records of Shelley, Byron and the Author. The work, based on Trelawny's notes and correspondence, describes their expatriate lifestyle in Italy, Shelley's sudden tragic death at sea, Byron's support for the Greek War of Independence, and his death. It is an indispensable source about the final months of Shelley and Byron's intense and unconventional lives, providing eye-witness details and intimate knowledge of two of England's greatest Romantic poets.

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.

A few years after Esther Alice Chadwick (fl. 1882-1928) - who wrote under the name Mrs Ellis H. Chadwick - had read a copy of Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte, she moved to a house near the Haworth vicarage where the Bronte family had lived. As a result, Chadwick was able to speak to many people who had known the family, and in 1914 she published this extensive biography of the family. Beginning with the Irish ancestry of the three famous sisters, Charlotte (1816-55), Emily (1818-48) and Anne (1820-49), she traces their short but eventful lives. Chadwick examines their early years and the influence of their father, Patrick, his work in the ministry and the family's time at Haworth. Later chapters are devoted to the sisters' education and their literary output, seeking to understand their extraordinary creativity amid the difficult circumstances of their life.

Walter Pater (1839-94) was the foremost Victorian writer on art and on aesthetic experience. He brought his extensive knowledge of the history of art to bear on the new problem of how to explain the very personal affective response to beauty, and raised this into a central concern of aesthetic and philosophical thought. His ideas still shape modern assumptions about how art plays on our feelings and intellectual responses. Published alongside Pater's collected works of 1900-1, this collection reprints his essays from The Guardian, composed in the late 1880s. Pater turns to literary topics with these reviews of new editions of Wordsworth and anthologies of poetry, academic studies on Browning and on the English theatre, Mrs Humphrey Ward's novel Robert Elsmere and her translation of the philosopher Henri-Frederic Amiel's private diary, as well as works by Edmund Gosse, Ferdinand Fabre and Augustin Filon.

The Victorian intellectual Mark Pattison (1813-84) published Isaac Casaubon in 1875, while rector of Lincoln College, Oxford. Casaubon (1559-1614), a French Protestant and distinguished Renaissance scholar, was the author of critical texts and commentaries on a vast corpus of classical authors, including Diogenes Laertius, Theocritus, Aristotle and Strabo. His magnum opus was his text and commentary on Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae. Pattison's account is based on letters, diaries, unpublished lecture notes and students' notes, published works, city archives, and university documents. The work covers Casaubon's youth, education, scholarly career, and final years spent in England (1610-14), where he influenced the rising 'Anglican school'. In his image of Casaubon, Pattison paints the picture of the ideal scholar, and through his portrayal reveals his deeply Victorian convictions and sensibilities. The work is an invaluable source for the life of the Renaissance scholar and the ideas and perspectives of the Victorian man.

First published in 1870, this 'museum of literary odds and ends' was condensed from material in a manuscript that was thrice the size of the finished book. At the end of his life, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1810-97) substantially revised and updated the Dictionary in 1895 and it has appeared in new versions ever since. Reissued here in its first edition, the work reflects Brewer's distinct style and draws on a lifetime's reading. Elucidating the etymology of some 20,000 unusual and everyday words and phrases, the collection touches on diverse subjects ranging from history and literature to mythology and magic. Brewer's charming preface describes the book as an 'alms-basket of words' and promises to examine terms such as 'killed with kindness' and 'kettle of fish'. Readers will be enlightened as to the original meaning of familiar and unfamiliar phrases, many of which have fallen out of use yet testify to the richness of an evolving language.

The novelist and essayist Elizabeth Hamilton (1756?-1816) wrote with especial distinction on the subject of education. Inspired by her older brother, the orientalist Charles Hamilton, she pursued her literary ambitions, informing her work with a knowledge of history, philosophy and politics. Her ability to present complex ideas in an accessible manner did much to secure her an appreciative readership. Establishing her reputation with a satirical attack on radical thought, Memoirs of Modern Philosophers (1800), she enjoyed her greatest literary success with The Cottagers of Glenburnie (1808), a tale of moral reformation. Her Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education (1801) is also reissued in this series. The present work was first published in two volumes in 1818 by her friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Benger (1775-1827). Volume 1 includes a biographical fragment by Hamilton, along with a selection of journal extracts and satirical essays.

The novelist and essayist Elizabeth Hamilton (1756?-1816) wrote with especial distinction on the subject of education. Inspired by her older brother, the orientalist Charles Hamilton, she pursued her literary ambitions, informing her work with a knowledge of history, philosophy and politics. Her ability to present complex ideas in an accessible manner did much to secure her an appreciative readership. Establishing her reputation with a satirical attack on radical thought, Memoirs of Modern Philosophers (1800), she enjoyed her greatest literary success with The Cottagers of Glenburnie (1808), a tale of moral reformation. Her Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education (1801) is also reissued in this series. The present work was first published in two volumes in 1818 by her friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Benger (1775-1827). Volume 2 contains selected letters and Hamilton's previously unpublished critique of the Book of Revelation.

John Ruskin (1819-1900), the influential Victorian art critic and social theorist, lived in the Lake District for nearly 30 years. This biographical study, first published in 1901, focuses on the significance of the region in Ruskin's life and art. It begins with his first visit as a five-year-old, when he became ''a dedicated spirit' to the beauty and the wonders of Nature', and ends with accounts of his funeral and memorial at Coniston. It describes his commitment to the local people and their traditional crafts, and his relationship with the poet Wordsworth. The author, H. D. Rawnsley (1851-1920), was a clergyman, conservationist and keen art lover based in the Lake District who had been personally tutored by Ruskin and who was one of the founders, in 1884, of the heritage organisation that became the National Trust.

Published in 1888, this work reproduced for the first time in full the letters sent by the English gentlewoman Dorothy Osborne (1627-95) to Sir William Temple (1628-99) during their courtship. Osborne first met Temple on the Isle of Wight in 1648, but both their families opposed the relationship and the couple were not able to marry until 1654. Osborne's letters are highly engaging, especially notable for their political and social commentary as well as for the details they reveal about her daily life and the clandestine courtship. Only one of Temple's letters survives, since Osborne destroyed them as soon as she had read them. While extracts of her letters had appeared in print earlier, the lawyer and author Edward Abbott Parry (1863-1943) was the first person to publish the entire collection of surviving correspondence. His edition is particularly valuable for the explanatory notes that accompany each letter.

These letters to Gilbert White (1720-93), the author of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789; also reissued in this series) were published in 1907. They were written between 1744 and 1790 by John Mulso (1721-91); brother of the bluestocking Mrs Chapone, to White, whom he had met when both were undergraduates at Oxford. White's letters to Mulso were unfortunately destroyed, frustrating plans to publish a 'most interesting and amusing series of letters' between intimate friends, but the remaining half of the correspondence, 'containing almost the only contemporary illustration of Gilbert White's character and career', and then in the possession of the earl of Stamford, was edited by Rashleigh Holt-White, a great-great-nephew and enthusiast of his ancestor's life. These fascinating letters give insights into not only White's character but also the lives of the gentry of the period, and the intellectual milieu in which both men moved.

James Catnach (1792-1841) became famous for publishing satirical ballads and sensational accounts of famous murders in his daily broadsheets, first printed in his own home in Seven Dials, London. Capitalising on the turbulent times, Catnach grew rich on producing lurid descriptions of crimes and the trials and executions that followed them. His imagination occasionally over-stepped the mark; he was once jailed for libel after claiming that a local butcher made his sausages from human flesh. This sympathetic and entertaining biography of Catnach, first published in 1878 by London raconteur Charles Hindley (d. 1893), describes Catnach's rise to prominence and features numerous reproductions of his ballads and stories. It is a fascinating tale encompassing the development of early forms of mass media and the wider political and social currents of the time, and provides invaluable insights into popular culture in nineteenth-century London.

George Dolby (?-1900) was the manager of Charles Dickens' highly successful reading tours in England and America between 1866 and 1870. He published this memoir of Dickens in 1885. Dickens was a keen amateur actor and had many friends involved with the theatre. He had begun public readings from his works in 1853 for charity, but in 1858 his first for-profit tour, lasting three months, covered much of England, Scotland and Ireland, and netted over GBP10,000. Without props or costumes, he brought his most popular characters to life, and continued to undertake lengthy and exhausting tours until shortly before his death (which some believed had been hastened by his exertions on stage). Dolby's account covers only the period of his own connection with Dickens, but he describes in detail the constant travel which the tours entailed, the people they encountered, and the enthusiastic response with which Dickens was everywhere received.

This selection from the letters of Charles Dickens (1812-70) was edited (as it says on the title page) 'by his sister-in-law and his eldest daughter'. The former was Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917), who stayed in Dickens' household and cared for the family when the author separated from his wife, her sister, in 1858; the latter was Mary (1838-96), known in the family as Mamie, his favourite child. They had published a three-volume edition in 1880, and a 'New Edition' in 1882; this reissue is of the single-volume third edition of 1893. The collection was seen as a 'supplement' to Forster's life of Dickens (also reissued in this series). Inevitably, it focuses on the positive and dynamic sides of Dickens' complex character, and gives a vivid portrait of a man juggling family life, writing, editing, travelling, amateur theatricals and public readings from his works with tremendous energy and verve.

Best known for The Rivals and The School for Scandal, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) was already a celebrated comic playwright when he entered Parliament in 1780. Turning his wit and talent as a writer to political oratory, he won acclaim for his speeches in the House of Commons. As an independent-minded Whig, he had to reconcile his distrust of monarchical power with his role as friend and confidant to the future George IV. Sheridan's was ultimately a turbulent life, rocked by affairs, heavy drinking and constant debt. This successful and influential two-volume biography, first published in 1825, was written by the poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852), who went on to chart the life of Lord Byron. Volume 2 covers Sheridan's political career, his speeches in Parliament and his final years, closing with reflections on his life.

Best known for The Rivals and The School for Scandal, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) was already a celebrated comic playwright when he entered Parliament in 1780. Turning his wit and talent as a writer to political oratory, he won acclaim for his speeches in the House of Commons. As an independent-minded Whig, he had to reconcile his distrust of monarchical power with his role as friend and confidant to the future George IV. Sheridan's was ultimately a turbulent life, rocked by affairs, heavy drinking and constant debt. This successful and influential two-volume biography, first published in 1825, was written by the poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852), who went on to chart the life of Lord Byron. Volume 1 covers Sheridan's early life and career as a writer, including extensive extracts from unfinished plays.

Frances Sheridan (1724-66) won acclaim in her day as both a playwright and novelist. Her most famous work, the sentimental novel Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph (1761), found favour with Samuel Johnson, while her comedy The Discovery (1763) was staged by David Garrick at Drury Lane. Her fame was later eclipsed by that of her son, the playwright and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816). Written by Alicia Lefanu (1791-c.1844), her granddaughter, this 1824 publication reaffirms the significance of Frances Sheridan's own work as a writer. Recounting her successes and incorporating her own recollections, the book reveals a woman admired both for her literary output and for her character. This work also includes reflections on the life of her son, whose early writing was influenced by that of his mother. Thomas Moore's two-volume biography of Richard Brinsley Sheridan has also been reissued in this series.

From his funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon to the engraving by Droeshout in the First Folio, the depictions of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) have long been the subject of scrutiny. Equally, the mystery surrounding the identity of 'W. H.', the dedicatee of Shakespeare's sonnets, continues to capture the imagination. This volume brings together three works that were originally published separately: two pieces on the portraits and one on the sonnets. A playwright turned theatrical biographer, James Boaden (1762-1839) cultivated a lifelong interest in Shakespeare. His illustrated 1824 analysis of the portraits examines the evidence concerning their authenticity. This is followed by an 1827 investigation by the portrait painter Abraham Wivell (1786-1849), who engages critically with Boaden's findings and those of others. Finally, Boaden's 1837 essay on the sonnets presents the case for naming William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, as their dedicatee - a claim taken up by many later scholars.