Lives of Victorian Literary Figures, Part IV:
Henry James, Edith Wharton and Oscar Wilde by their Contemporaries
Series Editor: Ralph Pite
Consulting Editor: John Mullan
Volume Editors: Janet Beer, Sarah Annes Brown and Jane Spirit
Lives of Victorian Literary Figures
978 1 85196 814 5: 234x156mm: £275.00/$495.00
This three-volume set in a highly successful facsimile series concentrates on some of the most influential figures of the late Victorian period. Henry James and Edith Wharton were both born into wealthy New York society while Oscar Wilde was also born to socially prominent and intellectual parents. All three spent much of their lives as expatriates and their most famous works are perceived as highly autobiographical, documenting and satirising the morally and aesthetically sophisticated milieu in which they mixed.
The lives of James and Wharton are particularly closely interlinked, James’s writing having a significant influence on Wharton, whilst their friendship, and Wharton’s influence, helped to secure James’s financial situation during the final years of his life.
James and Wilde were very careful to fashion their own images as literary figures, while Wharton had to balance the demands of her position as society hostess with her desire to write. Between them they helped to redefine late Victorian literature often concentrating on the tensions between the inner life of their characters and the conflicting demands placed on them by a rigid social code.
This collection brings together contemporary accounts of these significant literary figures, some of which confirm while others confound the literary myths that have grown up around them and their own presentations of themselves. It continues this highly successful series which illuminates the lives and works of a wide range of important writers from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Continues this highly-regarded series, which focuses on a younger generation of Victorian writers
- Each facsimile page is digitally cleaned and enhanced, significantly improving on the quality and legibility of the original
- Brings together a wide range of documents written by the direct contemporaries of these literary legends
- Full editorial apparatus includes a substantial general introduction, introductions to each volume, headnotes, endnotes and general index