The Selected Writings of Andrew Lang

Editors: Alexandra Warwick and Leigh Wilson


The Pickering Masters
4 Volume Set: 1600pp: April 2013
978 1 84893 148 0: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00

Andrew Lang (1844–1912) had a pivotal role in a number of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century discourses. He was among the founders of the discipline of ‘psychical research’ – its investigation of spiritualism complementing his ideas on the relationship between religion and magic – as well as being committed to the promotion of Scottish history. Lang was also an outspoken supporter of the move to have English Literature accepted as a field of study in universities and, most famously, he was intrinsic to the revival of interest in folklore.

The areas in which Lang’s studies overlap have not been fully explored. Although he himself tried to bridge the gap between folklore and anthropology on one side and psychical research on the other, the threads of his work have not been drawn together and examined. And, despite Lang’s popularity as a writer and a compiler at the time, there are no scholarly editions of his work available.

This edition enables a more complete assessment of Lang’s work, covering the four areas of study with which he is most associated: myths and magic; literary criticism; Scotland; and folklore. It also includes previously unpublished works and letters. It will provide a starting point for new research into the unique position Lang held in the development of literary and cultural modernity.

  • Brings together the full range of Lang’s writings, showing his influence across literature, folklore, Scottish history and the supernatural
  • Contains twenty-five letters to James Frazer, H Rider Haggard, William James, Oliver Lodge, Henry Sidgwick, Robert Louis Stevenson and E B Tylor, most of which are unpublished
  • Full scholarly apparatus is included, comprising a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes and endnotes
  • Index in final volume

Contents

Volume 1: Anthropology, Magic and Psychical Research

Anthropology: ‘Anthropology and Ancient Literature’, The Academy (1883); Custom and Myth (1884)*; ‘The End of Paradise’ and ‘The Romance of the First Radical’, In The Wrong Paradise and Other Stories (1886); Myth, Ritual and Religion (1887)*; ‘The Metaphysics of Savages’, The Academy (1888); Modern Mythology (1897)*; Magic and Religion (1901)*; The Secret of the Totem (1905)*; ‘Totem’, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911); Method in the Study of Totemism (1911)*; Letters to James Frazer; Letters to E B Tylor

Anthropology and Psychical Research: ‘Introduction’ to The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies: A Study of Folk-Lore and Psychical Research, by Robert Kirk (1893); Cock Lane and Common Sense (1894)*; ‘Savage Spiritualism’, Longman’s Magazine (1894); Modern Mythology (1897)*; The Making of Religion (1898)*; ‘Three Seeresses’, The Anglo-Saxon Review (1900)

Psychical Research: ‘The Comparative Study of Ghost Stories’, Nineteenth Century (1885); Preface to The Book of Dreams and Ghosts (1897); ‘Edmund Gurney’, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1902/1910); ‘Psychical Research’, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1902/1911); ‘Human Personality After Death’, The Monthly Review (1903); Presidential Address to Society for Psychical Research (1911); Letters to Oliver Lodge; Letters to Henry Sidgwick; Letters to William James

On Magical Phenomena: ‘Apparitions’, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1875/1910); ‘From the Ghost’s Point of View’, Time (1885); ‘Ghosts Up To Date’, Blackwood’s Magazine (1894); The Voices of Joan of Arc (1895)*; ‘Magic Mirrors and Crystal Gazing’, The Monthly Review (1901); ‘Introduction’ to Crystal Gazing: Its History and Practice, by Northcote W Thomas (1905); ‘The Divining Rod’, The Origins of Religion and Other Essays (1908); ‘Crystal Gazing’, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1910); ‘Hauntings’, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1910); ‘Poltergeist’, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911); ‘Second Sight’, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)

Volume 2: Literature and Criticism

Classical: Introduction to translation of Longinus, On the Sublime (1890)*; Introduction to Horace (1892)*; Homer and the Epic (1893)*; ‘Virgil’, Letters on Literature (1892); ‘Lucretius’, Letters on Literature (1892); Homer and His Age (1906)*; ‘Anthropology and the Classics’ (1908); The World of Homer (1910)*; The Homer Debate, ‘At the Sign of the Ship’ in Longman’s Magazine (1886–1905)

Modern: ‘Essay on Edgar Allen Poe’ (1883)*; ‘To Jane Austen’, Letters to Dead Authors (1886); ‘To Alexandre Dumas’, Letters to Dead Authors (1886); ‘To Edgar Allen Poe’, Letters to Dead Authors (1886); ‘To Percy Bysshe Shelley’, Letters to Dead Authors (1886); ‘Wilkie Collins’s Novels’ (1890); ‘Dickens’, Essays in Little (1891) plus extracts from introductions to Works of Dickens; ‘Mr Stevenson’s Works’, Essays in Little (1891) plus extracts from introductions to Works of Stevenson; ‘Mr Kipling’s Stories’, Essays in Little (1891); ‘Of Modern English Poetry’, from Letters on Literature (1892); ‘Fielding’, Letters on Literature (1892); ‘Victorian English Literature’ (1897); Introduction to Selected Poems of Wordsworth (1897)*; Introduction to Selected Poems of Coleridge (1898)*; Alfred Tennyson (1901)*; Introduction to Selected Poems of Keats (1903)*; The Puzzle of Dickens’s Last Plot (1905)*; ‘Mr Morris’ Poems’, Adventures Among Books (1905); ‘Smollett’, Adventures Among Books (1905)

Literary Criticism: ‘Critics and Criticism’ (1890); ‘A School of Fiction’ (1891); ‘Criticism’ (1891); ‘The Science of Criticism’ (1891); ‘Taste in Fiction’ (1893); ‘Purpose Novels’ (1894); ‘The Teaching of Literature’ (1901); ‘Can Literature be Taught?’ (1901); ‘Examinations in Fiction’ (1901); ‘Adventures Among Books’, Adventures Among Books (1905); A History of English Literature (1912)*

The Business of Literature: ‘The Library’, The Library (1881); ‘Literary Forgeries’, Books and Bookmen (1886); ‘How to Fail in Literature’ (1890); ‘Literature as a Trade’ (1890); ‘The Last Fashionable Novel’, Essays in Little (1891); ‘To a Young Journalist', Essays in Little (1891); ‘The Science of Criticism’ (1891); ‘To a Young American Book Collector’, Letters on Literature (1892); ‘The Reading Public’ (1901); ‘Criticising the Higher Criticism’ (1901)

Realism and Romance: ‘Realism and Romance’ (1887); ‘Literary Plagiarism’ (1887); ‘Literary Anodynes’ (1888); ‘Romance and the Reverse’ (1888); ‘Mr Buchanan’s Young Man’ (1889); Preface, The Book of Romance (1902); The Supernatural in Fiction’, Adventures Among Books (1905); The Romance Debate, ‘At the Sign of the Ship’ in Longman’s Magazine (1886–1905); Letters to H Rider Haggard; Letters to R L Stevenson

Volume 3: On Scotland

Scottish History and Historical Practice: John Knox and the Reformation (1905)*; ‘Knox as Historian’, Scottish Historical Review (1905)*; The Mystery of Mary Stuart (1900)*; Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart (1906)*; ‘The Queen’s Marie’, The Valet’s Tragedy (1903)*; The Last Stuarts [n.d.]; The King over the Water (1907)*; Prince Charles Edward Stuart: The Young Chevalier (1900)*; The Highlands of Scotland in 1750 (1897)*; Pickle the Spy (1897)*; The Companions of Pickle (1898)*; ‘Death of Keppoch’, Oban Times (1906)

Controversies: ‘The Casket letters’, Scottish Historical Review (1908) – and responses thereafter; James VI and the Gowrie Mystery (1902)*; Introduction from The Gowrie Conspiracy: Confessions of George Sprott (1902); Historical Mysteries (1905)*; Pickle the Spy (1897)*; The Companions of Pickle (1898)*; ‘The case of Allan Breck’, Historical Mysteries (1905)

Scottish History: Narratives and Narration: A Monk of Fife (1896)*; Sir George Mackenzie of Rosenhaugh (1909)*; The Union of 1707: A Survey of Events (P Hume Brown, ed.) (1907)*; ‘Lectures in Scottish History’ (1911)*; A History of Scotland (1900–7)*; A Short History of Scotland (1911)*

Imagining Scottish History: Literature and Literary Criticism: Introduction to Selected Poems of Robert Burns (1891); Introduction to Poems and Songs of Burns (1896); ‘Scott’, Letters to Dead Authors (1893); Various Introductions to The Waverley Novels (1892–4)*; Introduction to Lyrics and Ballads (1894)*; Introduction to Scott’s Poetical Works (1895)*; Introduction to The Lady of the Lake (1897)*; Introduction to Lay of the Last Minstrel (1905)*; Life of Sir Walter Scott (1906)*; Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy (1910)*; The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart (1896)*; Introduction to A Child’s Garden of Verses (1907)*; Introduction to Works of R L Stevenson (1911)*; George Douglas Brown, The House with the Green Shutters (1903)*; The Disentanglers (1902)*; Poetical Works (1923)*

Scotland: The Landscape of the Imagination: Introduction to The Highlands of Scotland in 1750 (1897)*; Highways and Byways on the Border (1913)*; Gold of Fairnilee (1888)*; St Leonard’s Magazine (1863); ‘Almae Matres’ (1887); ‘Old St Leonard’s Days’ (1887); St Andrews (1893)*; Introduction to The Scarlet Gown (1909)*; ‘Ballade of his own country’ (1883); Lost Leaders (1889)*; Angling Sketches (1891)*; Famous Golf Links (1891)*

Volume 4: Folklore, Fairy Tale and Myth

The Method of Folklore: ‘The Method of Folklore’, Custom and Myth (1884); ‘New System Proposed’, Myth, Ritual and Religion (2nd ed, 1899)

The Origin and Diffusion of Tales: ‘Household Tales; Their Origin, Diffusion, and Relations to the Higher Myths’, Introduction to Grimm’s Household Tales (Margaret Hunt, ed.) (1884); ‘Cupid, Psyche, and the ‘Sun Frog’, Custom and Myth (1884); ‘A Far Travelled Tale’, Custom and Myth (1884); ‘Cinderella and the Diffusion of Tales’, Folk-Lore (1893)

The Genres of Popular Tradition: ‘Literary Fairy Tales’, Introduction to Little Johannes (Frederik van Eeden, ed.) (1894); ‘Heroic and Romantic Myths’, Myth, Ritual and Religion (2nd ed, 1899); ‘Tale’ and ‘Mythology’, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)

Tale Collections: ‘Introduction’, Perrault’s Popular Tales (1888); ‘Introduction’, Australian Legendary Tales (K Langloh Parker ed.) (1896). The Coloured Fairy Books: Selected Introductions and Prefaces: ‘Introduction’, The Blue Fairy Book (1889); ‘Introduction’, The Red Fairy Book (1890); ‘Preface’, The Green Fairy Book (1892); ‘Preface’, The Yellow Fairy Book (1894); ‘Preface’, The Pink Fairy Book (1897); ‘Preface’, The Grey Fairy Book (1900); ‘Preface’, The Olive Fairy Book (1907); ‘Preface’, The Lilac Fairy Book (1910)

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