Harold B. Lee Library

Archive for the “Victorian and Edwardian Literature” Category

• Celebrating Dickens
  Posted February 2, 2012 by Maggie Kopp

  The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens is this Tuesday, February 7.  At Special Collections, we are celebrating with a small exhibit on this beloved author’s life and works.  The exhibit features first editions of A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby in parts, and an original steel printing plate used to [...]

• Victorian novels: recent acquisitions
  Posted January 23, 2012 by Maggie Kopp

  One major area of emphasis in the Victorian and Edwardian Literature Collections is work by British women novelists.  Special Collections owns first editions of beloved authors like the Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot; but there is a wealth of literature by novelists who are less celebrated today but produced best-sellers in their own [...]

• Victorian ghoulies and ghosties
  Posted October 13, 2011 by Maggie Kopp

  Victorians were avid readers of ghost stories.  Many novels and short stories of the time period touch on the supernatural, mystical, the Gothic, and the occult.  From “A Christmas Carol” to “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” some of the most famous supernatural tales in literature date from the Victorian period. To [...]

• Beatrix Potter in Special Collections
  Posted September 28, 2011 by Maggie Kopp

  A recent addition to the Edwardian literature collection is a copy of Beatrix Potter’s “The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit” (1906).  This little book is one of two Potter tales originally published in a concertina, or accordion, format.  Special Collections has a nearly-complete set of first editions of Potter’s 23 tales, as well as [...]

• Great Expectations
  Posted August 18, 2011 by Maggie Kopp

  Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” is one of many famous novels which were published 150 years ago, in 1861.  Dickens released the novel serially in his magazine “All the Year Round” beginning in December 1860; the novel finished in the August 1861 issue.  London publishers Chapman and Hall then released “Great Expectations” in a three-volume book [...]

• Thackeray and Charles Dickens
  Posted July 21, 2011 by Maggie Kopp

  William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens were two of the most eminent Victorian novelists of their generation.   They knew each other well, mixing in the same circles, but they were also literary rivals whose differing personalities and viewpoints eventually led to a bitter feud. Both Dickens and Thackeray began their careers as journalists, but Dickens [...]

• Thackeray and Charlotte Brontë
  Posted July 8, 2011 by Maggie Kopp

  As Special Collections celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of William Makepeace Thackeray, this blog turns to highlight authors who have been influenced by Thackeray’s writing.  The first to be highlighted is Charlotte Brontë. Thackeray was one of Charlotte Brontë’s biggest literary heroes.  Smith, Elder and Co., the publisher of Charlotte’s first novel Jane [...]

• William Makepeace Thackeray on exhibit now
  Posted June 21, 2011 by Maggie Kopp

  Another literary anniversary being celebrated in Special Collections is the 200th anniversary of the birth of British novelist William Makepeace Thackeray.  Thackeray was born in India on July 18, 1811, the son of a high-ranking official in the British East India Company. Thackeray made his career as a writer of satirical novels about British society, [...]

• George Eliot’s “Silas Marner”
  Posted April 11, 2011 by Maggie Kopp

  George Eliot’s famous short novel Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe was published two hundred years ago this month.  Eliot wrote Silas Marner in five months, between November 1860 and March 1861.  The novel is both shorter and happier in tone than her earlier novels, Adam Bede and The Mill on the Floss, which were [...]

• Anthony Trollope’s “Orley Farm”
  Posted March 1, 2011 by Maggie Kopp

  150 years ago this month, London publishing firm Chapman and Hall issued the first monthly part of Anthony Trollope’s Orley Farm.  This novel, which concerns a forged will and the corrosive effects of guilt, quickly became a blockbuster hit among the reading public.  One factor in its appeal was the illustrations, done by famed pre-Raphaelite [...]