New And Noteworthy

Contemporary Review, Sept, 2001

ROUTLEDGE has recently begun two exciting new series, both aimed at the growing interest in English literature and literary criticism in general. The first, 'Routledge Classics', seeks to introduce a new generation of readers to great works of scholarship and seminal publications from the recent past. On 18 May five titles were published, each priced at [pound]30.00 hardback and [pound]9.99 paperback. They include G. Wilson Knight's The Wheel of Fire: Interpretations of Shakespearian Tragedy, first published in 1930 and with an introduction by T. S. Eliot; Jean-Paul Sartre's What is Literature?, first published in England in 1950 and translated by Bernard Frechtman; Eric Partridge's Shakespeare's Bawdy, first published in 1947 and with a foreword by Stanley Wells; Jonathan Culler's The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction, first published in 1981 and with a new preface by the author and, finally, I. A. Richards' Principles of Literary Criticism, which first appeared as far back as 1924. Al l these works were and remain highly influential and now students have the opportunity to possess their own copies.

The second new series on which Routledge is to be congratulated is 'The Complete Critical Guide to English Literature' which is usually priced at [pound]45.00 for the hardback edition and [pound]11.99 for the paperback version. The series, which concentrates on the most frequently studied English writers, combines biography, literary history, criticism and theory. It is edited by Richard Bradford and Jan Jedrzejewski, both of whom are at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. The length averages about 200 pages and each volume is divided into three: 'life and contexts', 'work' and finally, 'criticism'. The first four titles include Richard Bradford's The Complete Critical Guide to John Milton, Paul Bines' The Complete Critical Guide to Alexander Pope, Gillian Rudd's The Complete Critical Guide to Geoffrey Chaucer and David Pattie's The Complete Critical Guide to Samuel Beckett. Forthcoming authors to be published will include Browning, Dickens, Jonson, D. H. Lawrence and Wordsworth. Readers will find detaile d information at the following website: www.literature.routledge.com/criticalguides Finally, Routledge has recently published a fifth edition of David Childs' Britain Since 1945: A Political History ([pound]55.00), a left-wing account of recent British history.

A & C BLACK have long been famous for their travel guides, designed for the more discerning visitor. The series began with the 'blue guides' which covered countries and to these were added 'city guides'. Five new or revised guides have recently been published and all live up to the high standard already set: Robin Barber's Blue Guide to Greece ([pound]18.99) is now in its sixth edition and allows the author to combine his unrivalled knowledge of Classical Greek civilisation with his firsthand knowledge of modem Greek life. Among new City Guides are Brian Lalor's to Dublin ([pound]10.99), Delia Gray-Durant's to Paris and Versailles ([pound]14.99), now in its tenth edition, Alta Macadam's to Florence ([pound]13.99), now in its eighth edition and Bob Dent's to Budapest ([pound]11.99) now in its second edition.

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS has recently brought out three new titles in their 'companion' series: The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens edited by John O. Jordan; The Cambridge Companion to Proust edited by Richard Bales; and The Cambridge Companion to Robert Frost edited by Robert Faggen. All are priced at [pound]37.50 (US$54.94) and all follow the same basic format: after an introduction by the editor there are various essays by a host of experts on differing aspects of the life and work of the author involved. The volume on Dickens, for example, devotes most of its essays to nine of Dickens' most famous novels but there are also essays on his view of city life and the family and also essays on Dickens' use of language, his relationship with the stage and treatment of him by the cinema. The volume on Proust naturally concentrates on his A la Recherche du Temps Perdu and discusses the biographical background, the use of language, its 'social dimension', its humour and its influence. Mr Faggen's Companio n to Robert Frost discusses various aspects of his poetry: the influence of his life on his work, his indebtedness to pastoral and classical influences, the role of New England, his use of metaphor, the human presence in his verse, his commercial sense and an interesting essay on 'Frost's Politics and the Cold War'.

The American publisher, W. W. NORTON, is justly famous for its series, the 'Norton Critical Editions' in which famous works of literature or the stage are published along with extensive notes, valuable introductory material on the author and the background to the work, extracts from correspondence (where this is available), a selection of critical views of the work, a chronology and a list of further reading. Three new titles have been published in recent weeks: The Epic of Gilgamesh ([pound]7.95), translated and edited by Benjamin R. Foster; a second, revised edition of Ben Jonson's Plays and Masques ([pound]8.92), selected and edited by Richard Harp; and Emerson's Prose and Poetry ([pound]11.95), selected and edited by Joel Porte and Saundra Morris.