Classics Books

From Austen to Zola, from medieval to the modern day - all genres are catered for between the covers of these coveted classics.

6752 products


  • Greenbook Publications, LLC Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £14.24

  • Troubles

    The New York Review of Books, Inc Troubles

    10 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    10 in stock

    £17.06

  • Death of a Salesman

    Penguin Group (NZ) Death of a Salesman

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman’s deferred American dreamA Penguin Classic   Since it was first performed in 1949, Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the tragic shortcomings of an American dreamer has been recognized as a milestone of the theater. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. At age 63, he searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the son in whom he invested his faith. Willy lives in a fragile world of elaborate excuses and daydreams, conflating past and present in a desperate attempt to make sense of himself and of a world that once promised so much. This Penguin Classics edition features aTrade ReviewWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for DramaWinner of the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters"By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." —Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times"So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." —Time

    1 in stock

    £12.60

  • HarperCollins Publishers The Stars Shine Down

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisA page-turning thriller of love and betrayal from the bestselling Master of Suspense and author of If Tomorrow Comes and The Other Side of Midnight.Trade ReviewSheldon is an author working at the height of his power * New York Times *Fast-moving… engrossing… Sidney Sheldon is a master at giving the public what it wants * LA Times *Compulsively readable * New York Times Book Review *

    15 in stock

    £13.29

  • The Saga of Grettir the Strong

    Penguin Books Ltd The Saga of Grettir the Strong

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisComposed at the end of the fourteenth century by an unknown author, The Saga of Grettir the Strong is one of the last great Icelandic sagas. It relates the tale of Grettir, an eleventh-century warrior struggling to hold on to the values of a heroic age becoming eclipsed by Christianity and a more pastoral lifestyle.Trade Review“An amazing epic—as revenge-driven as the Greeks, with fight scenes rivaling today’s superhero action films.” ―Rita Dove, The New York Times Book Review“The [translation is] generally excellent; accurate and readable. . . . Sure to become the standard.” —The Times Literary Supplement

    10 in stock

    £12.34

  • Seize the Day

    Penguin Putnam Inc Seize the Day

    10 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    10 in stock

    £13.60

  • The Divine Comedy

    Penguin Putnam Inc The Divine Comedy

    10 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    10 in stock

    £24.65

  • The Suitcase

    Alma Books Ltd The Suitcase

    10 in stock

    Several years after emigrating from the USSR, the author discovers the battered suitcase he had brought with him gathering dust at the back of a wardrobe. As he opens the suitcase, the items he finds inside take on a riotously funny life of their own as Dovlatov inventories the circumstances under which he acquired them. A poplin shirt evokes a story of courtship and marriage, a pair of boots calls up the hilarious conclusion to an official banquet, two pea-green crêpe socks bring back memories of his attempt to become a black-market racketeer, while a double-breasted suit reminds him of when he was approached by the KGB to spy on a Swedish writer. Imbued with a comic nostalgia and overlaid with Dovlatov’s characteristically dark-edged humour and wry power of observation, The Suitcase is a profoundly human, delightfully ironic novel from one of the finest satirists of the twentieth century.

    10 in stock

    £8.54

  • Little, Brown Book Group A Weekend With Claude

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis'Extremely lively' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT'A work of art' SCOTSMAN'Genius' SUNDAY TIMESAn old snapshot shows a group of friends lounging in the sunshine, on a weekend in the country at the invitation of bearded, satyric Claude and his wife Julia. The girl in the centre is dreamy Lily, whose latest failed love affair forms the purpose of the weekend, as Lily's friends set out to help her ensnare an unwitting father for her unborn child. Next to her is Norman, a Marxist romantic hell-bent on seducing his milk-white hostess; behind them is old, persecuted Shebah; and slightly apart, the young man on whom all hopes are pinned: quiet, pleasant Edward.Told through the fractured narratives of Claude, Lily, Shebah and Norman, in Beryl Bainbridge's first published novel a darkly comic weekend of friendship and failure unravels.Trade ReviewIt is her skewed and deadly grasp of the immediate that makes Bainbridge's work unique. Formerly an actress, she has an uncanny ear for dialogue, a perfect sense of timing and a terse, elliptical narrative style that combine to create a dramatic, or cinematic, tension * New York Times *Extremely lively and incisive entertainment * Times Literary Supplement *[Bainbridge's] genius lies in the comic evocation of the mundane life against which her characters are in revolt * Sunday Times *A riotous, macabre imagination * Daily Telegraph *Delicious . . . Very elegant and pleasing . . . A work of art * Scotsman *Extremely lively and incisive entertainment * Times Literary Supplement *Her genius lies in the comic evocation of the mundane life against which her characters are in perpetual and ineffectual revolt * Sunday Times *Delicious . . . very elegant and pleasing . . . A work of art * Scotsman *

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • HarperCollins Publishers Justine 02 Harper Perennial Forbidden Classics

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    £9.99

  • Roald Dahl Collected Stories

    Everyman Roald Dahl Collected Stories

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisMany of these stores are now so famous from film and television adaptations that they need no introduction. Roald Dahl is well known as a master of the macabre and the unexpected in the tradition of Saki, and this volume does not disappoint. He began his literary career by writing about his own experiences in the RAF during World War II but soon developed this talent in a series of short-story collections. He is perhaps even more celebrated as an author of children's books, but the best of his short stories represent a claim for him to be numbered among the most remarkable story writers of the 20th century.The present volume includes for the first time all the stories in chronological order as established by Dahl's biographer, Jeremy Treglown, in consultation with the Dahl estate.

    1 in stock

    £17.09

  • Valancourt Books Glenarvon

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £23.51

  • Hashish The Lost Legend: The First English

    Process Media Hashish The Lost Legend: The First English

    20 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    20 in stock

    £28.99

  • The Beautiful and Damned

    Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group The Beautiful and Damned

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisF. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, which brilliantly satirizes a doomed and glamorous marriage, anticipated the master stroke—The Great Gatsby—that would follow, and marks a key moment in the writer’s career. Would-be Jazz Age aristocrats Anthony and Gloria Patch embody the corrupt high society of 1920s New York: they are beautiful, shallow, pleasure-seeking, and vain. As presumptive heirs to a large fortune, they begin their married life by living well beyond their means. Their days are marked by endless drinking, dancing, luxury, and play. But when the expected inheritance is withheld, their lives become consumed with the pursuit of wealth, and their alliance begins to fall apart. Inspired in part by Fitzgerald's own tumultuous union with his wife Zelda, hauntingly rendered and keenly observed, these characters evoke a vivid portrait of a lost world: a city steeped in vice, a society without direction, and the rootless and decadent generation that in

    3 in stock

    £12.01

  • Cadide Zadig

    Penguin Putnam Inc Cadide Zadig

    10 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    10 in stock

    £7.44

  • Gandhi His Life and Message for the World Signet

    Penguin Putnam Inc Gandhi His Life and Message for the World Signet

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis is the extraordinary story of how one man's indomitable spirit inspired a nation to triumph over tyranny. This is the story of Mahatma Gandhi, a man who owned nothing-and gained everything.

    10 in stock

    £7.95

  • Aziloth Books Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £11.52

  • A Farewell To Arms

    Pan Macmillan A Farewell To Arms

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisFrederic Henry is an American Lieutenant serving in the ambulance corps of the Italian army during the First World War. While stationed in northern Italy, he falls in love with Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. Theirs is an intense, tender and passionate love affair overshadowed by the war. Ernest Hemingway spares nothing in his denunciation of the horrors of combat, yet vividly depicts the courage shown by so many. In writing A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway was inspired by his own wartime experience as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. First published in 1929, the novel made his name and remains one of his finest works. This stunning edition features an afterword by Ned Halley.Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

    5 in stock

    £10.44

  • Aziloth Books Zanoni

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £13.92

  • A Room with a View

    Penguin Putnam Inc A Room with a View

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisWit and intelligence are the hallmarks of this probing portrait of the English character. And in this story of extreme contrasts—in values, social class, and cultural perspectives—an unconventional romantic relationship leads to conventional happiness in a delightful social comedy. While touring Italy with her overbearing cousin, well-bred Lucy Honeychurch falls in love with the handsome but entirely unsuitable George Emerson, only to become engaged to the haughty Cecil Vyse. But Lucy is lured away from the conventions of upper-middle-class Edwardian society by her yearnings for the clerk she left behind. A Room with a View satirizes the English notion of respectability—and remains Forster’s most beloved novel and a twentieth-century classic.

    10 in stock

    £6.95

  • 1984 Nineteen Eighty Four

    Penguin Putnam Inc 1984 Nineteen Eighty Four

    Book SynopsisWritten 75 years ago, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever...This 75th Anniversary Edition includes:• A New Introduction by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Take My Hand, winner of the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work—Fiction • A New Afterword by Sandra Newman, author of Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell’s 1984“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think

    £15.30

  • The Story Of King Arthur And His Knights

    Penguin Putnam Inc The Story Of King Arthur And His Knights

    10 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    10 in stock

    £6.95

  • Tales from Shakespeare

    Penguin Putnam Inc Tales from Shakespeare

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £7.95

  • The War of the Worlds

    Penguin Putnam Inc The War of the Worlds

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £7.60

  • Heart Of Darkness And The Secret Sharer

    Penguin Putnam Inc Heart Of Darkness And The Secret Sharer

    10 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    10 in stock

    £7.56

  • Penguin Putnam Inc Lord of the Flies Centenary Edition

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisThe classic novel by William GoldingWith a new Introduction by Stephen KingTo me Lord of the Flies has always represented what novels are for, what makes them indispensable. -Stephen KingGolding's classic, startling, and perennially bestselling portrait of human nature remains as provocative today as when it was first published. This beautiful new edition features French flaps and rough fronts, making it a must-have for fans of this seminal work.William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. As ordinary standards of behaviour collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them—the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories—and another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible.Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favorite among both students and literary critics who compared it to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in its influence on modern thought and literature.Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic. 

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • The Fellowship of the Ring Volume 1 Being the

    William Morrow & Company The Fellowship of the Ring Volume 1 Being the

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £25.50

  • Mathilda

    Broadview Press Ltd Mathilda

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisMary Shelley’s Mathilda, the story of one woman’s existential struggle after learning of her father’s desire for her, has been identified as Shelley’s most important work after Frankenstein. The two texts share many characteristics, besides authorship and contemporaneity: both concern parental abandonment; both contribute to the Gothic form through themes of incest, insanity, suicidality, monstrosity, and isolation; and both are epistolary. However, Mathilda was not published until 1959, 140 years after Shelley wrote it—in part because Shelley’s father, William Godwin, suppressed it. This new edition encourages a critical reconsideration of a novella that has been critically stereotyped as biographical and explores its importance to the Romantic debate about suicide.Historical appendices trace the connections between Mathilda and other works by Shelley and by her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, while also providing biographical documents, contemporary works on the theme of incest, and documents on suicide in the Romantic era.For Michelle Faubert’s transcription of Mathilda for the Shelley-Godwin Archive, click here.Trade Review“The Broadview Press edition of Mathilda fills a gap in Romantic studies. The long-suppressed work (Godwin refused to return the manuscript) wasn’t published until 1959, and its immediate critical reception was almost entirely biographical. Michelle Faubert’s astute introduction to this new edition offers a scrupulous account of the work’s critical reception and opens new possibilities for understanding what she calls a ‘purgatorial text.’ The judicious appendices, a hallmark of Broadview Editions, situate Shelley’s novella in the contexts of its immediate intertexts, of its central place in contemporaneous suicide debates, and, crucially, of representations of incest and the Gothic. A paperback edition makes a hitherto neglected text widely available. The sophisticated editorial care evident throughout ensures that this will also serve as the standard scholarly edition.” — Alan Vardy, Hunter College, City University of New York“Michelle Faubert’s beautifully edited version of Mathilda is the first widely available edition to come from a transcription of Shelley’s original 1819 fair copy. Faubert’s lucid and elegant introduction situates Mathilda in the context of Shelley’s earlier Frankenstein (1818) and later novella The Mourner (1830) and discusses its troubled publication history and recent critical reception. Faubert provides a wide range of well-chosen supplementary material to complement both novice and returning readers’ appreciation for and study of Mathilda. This edition should become the standard classroom text of Shelley’s important, engaging, and notorious second novel.” — Katherine Montwieler, University of North Carolina Wilmington“The editor writes with a clear sense of hope that the text may find new readers thanks to this publication. I share her optimism … Overall a superb edition that I hope will indeed breathe new life into the oft-forgotten Mathilda and her haunting tale.” — Anna Mercer, Romantic Circles“This new edition is a welcome addition, and Michelle Faubert offers an affordable volume for use by students, scholars, and general readers, which is accompanied by careful editing and explanatory notes, an authoritative introduction, and accompanying excerpts from contemporary texts. Faubert believes that the work should be better known, and this edition will do much to make it available to readers.” — Lisa Vargo, European Romantic Review“Faubert makes a convincing case in her edition for the need for new eyes to be brought to the text, as her annotations and notes regarding editing nuances and specifics attest. Because of the careful transcription her work has brought to the manuscript as well as the judicious footnotes readers expect from a Broadview edition, Faubert invites readers to reconsider the text and contexts of the novel even as readers are invited to read anew—Faubert’s notes position the edition for both the ‘popular, as well as scholarly, audience’. … Faubert’s careful edition makes a convincing argument for shining light back on this novella again.” — Lucy Morrison, Women’s WritingTable of Contents Awknowledgements Introduction Mary Shelley: A Brief Chronology A Note on the Text Mathilda Appendix A: The Romantic-era Suicide Debate From William Godwin’s An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (1793) From David Hume’s Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul (1793) From William Rowley’s A Treatise on Female, Nervous, Hysterical … Diseases (1788) From John Francis’ “Sermon III. On Self-Murder” (1749) From Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) From Lord Byron’s Manfred (1817) William Wordsworth’s “The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman” (1798) Appendix B: Family Resemblances Full-detail transcription from Mary Shelley’s manuscript of “Mathilda” (1819) From Mary Shelley’s “The Fields of Fancy” (1819) From Mary Shelley’s “The Mourner” (1830) From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) From Mary Wollstonecraft’s Mary, A Fiction (1788) From Mary Wollstonecraft’s The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria (1798) From Mary Wollstonecraft’s “Cave of Fancy” (composed 1787; published 1798) Appendix C: Incest, the Gothic, Literary Forebears From Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Cenci (1819) From Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Laon and Cythna (1818) From Vittorio Alfieri’s Myrrha (1815) From Matthew Lewis’ The Monk (1796) From Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) Appendix D: Biographical Context: Shelley’s Letters and Journals Letter from Godwin to P. B. Shelley on Fanny Imlay’s suicide (1816) From Harriet Shelley’s suicide letter (1816) Letter by Mary Shelley on William Shelley’s final illness (1819) William Godwin’s letter to Mary Shelley on her son’s death (1819)

    4 in stock

    £18.00

  • The Scarlet Pimpernel

    Oxford University Press The Scarlet Pimpernel

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIs he in heaven?-Is he in hell?That demmed, elusive Pimpernel?Sir Percy Blakeney lives a double life in the England of 1792: at home he is an idle fop and a leader of fashion, but in abroad he is the Scarlet Pimpernel, a master of disguise who saves aristocrats from the guillotine. When the revolutionary French state seeks to unmask him, Percy''s estranged, independent wife, Marguerite, unwittingly sets their agent on her husband''s track. Percy''s escapades, and Marguerite''s daring journey to France to save him from the guillotine, keep the reader turning the pages of Baroness Orczy''s well-paced romantic adventure. Written in just five weeks in 1903, Baroness Emma Orczy''s bestseller has been the basis of multiple adaptations. Rooted in the upheaval of Orczy''s Hungarian childhood, and in the anxious nationalism of turn-of-the-century Britain, the story of the Scarlet Pimpernel provided a blueprint not only for subsequent historical swashbucklers, but for superheroes from Zorro to Superman. The edition places the book The Scarlet Pimpernel within the context of the elite and popular literature of the turn of the century. Orczy''s novel is close in kin to such contemporary political thrillers as Joseph Conrad''s The Secret Agent (1907); tales that channelled contemporary concerns about refugees and enemies within.Trade ReviewNicholas Daly's fine new edition traces the afterlife of the novel in the context of changing public interests, reflecting as it does the shifting definitions of national identity, of social class and of gender. * Dinah Birch, Times Literary Supplement *[The] introduction is excellent... The Scarlet Pimpernel itself is worth a few hours of anyone's attention. * Hayley Anderton, Desperate Reader *

    1 in stock

    £9.49

  • Espasa-Calpe SA Mujeres

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £16.00

  • Alianza Editorial Mitos y Literatura Maya

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £13.96

  • Ensayo sobre la ceguera / Blindness

    Debolsillo Ensayo sobre la ceguera / Blindness

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £13.78

  • Todos los nombres / All the Names

    Debolsillo Todos los nombres / All the Names

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £13.95

  • Todo se desmorona / Things Fall Apart

    Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Todo se desmorona / Things Fall Apart

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £12.15

  • 15 in stock

    £19.56

  • Three Novels

    Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press Three Novels

    4 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    4 in stock

    £15.72

  • Oetinger Verlag Ich will auch in die Schule gehen

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £15.26

  • Der Rauber Hotzenplotz

    Thienemanns (K.) Verlag Der Rauber Hotzenplotz

    Book Synopsis

    £8.80

  • McClelland & Stewart Inc. Swamp Angel

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisWalking out on a demoralizing second marriage, Maggie Lloyd leaves Vancouver to work at a fishing lodge in the interior of British Columbia. But the serenity of Maggie’s new surroundings is soon disturbed by the irrational jealousy of the lodge-keeper’s wife. Restoring her own broken spirit, Maggie must also become a healer to others. In this, she is supported by her eccentric friend, Nell Severance, whose pearl-handled revolver - the Swamp Angel - becomes Maggie’s ambiguous talisman and the novel’s symbolic core.Ethel Wilson’s best-loved novel, Swamp Angel first appeared in 1954. It remains an astute and powerful study of one woman’s integrity and of the redemptive power of compassion.

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Le Comte de Monte Cristo 1

    Librairie generale francaise Le Comte de Monte Cristo 1

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £10.95

  • Editions Flammarion Le Comte de Monte-Cristo 1

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Librairie generale francaise Eugenie Grandet

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £7.48

  • Le pere Goriot

    Librairie generale francaise Le pere Goriot

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £7.92

  • Iola Leroy: or, Shadows Uplifted

    Broadview Press Ltd Iola Leroy: or, Shadows Uplifted

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisFrances Harper’s fourth novel follows the life of the beautiful, light-skinned Iola Leroy to tell the story of black families in slavery, during the Civil War, and after Emancipation. Iola Leroy adopts and adapts three genres that commanded significant audiences in the nineteenth century: the sentimental romance, the slave narrative, and plantation fiction. Written by the foremost black woman activist of the nineteenth century, the novel sheds light on the movements for abolition, public education, and voting rights through a compelling narrative. This edition engages the latest research on Harper’s life and work and offers ways to teach these major moments in United States history by centering the experiences of African Americans. The appendices provide primary documents that help readers do what they are seldom encouraged to do: consider the experiences and perspectives of people who are not white. The Introduction traces Harper’s biography and the changing critical perspectives on the novel. Trade Review“Edited by one of the finest scholars of American literature, this Broadview edition of the much beloved, popular nineteenth-century classic Iola Leroy commands new attention and demonstrates fresh relevance. Koritha Mitchell elegantly argues for the merits of this early novel as an African American community text, based on its aesthetic qualities, the political currents that shaped it, and the material realities of its production, circulation, and readership. Appendices of thoughtfully curated secondary sources that privilege the firsthand testimonies of early African Americans about emancipatory, intellectual, social, and cultural matters, and that feature more creative and critical selections by Harper, bring distinction to this teachable, accessible edition. If one wishes to understand how the aftermath of enslavement has influenced and continues to shape the African American literary tradition and national conversations among and about African Americans, the Broadview edition of Iola Leroy is a necessary place to begin.” — Barbara McCaskill, University of Georgia“Koritha Mitchell gives us the definitive edition of Iola Leroy, a novel that reflects the mature insight and creative prowess of teacher, activist, and writer Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Readers are guided through this compelling saga of post–Civil War race, gender, class, and politics by Mitchell’s patient, expert hand. Her original interpretations are enriched by careful attention to the important debates that have always surrounded Harper’s work. Return to this edition again and again to discover the many meanings embedded in Iola Leroy and in Harper’s gifted prose.” — Martha S. Jones, Johns Hopkins University“Koritha Mitchell’s Broadview Press edition is a triumph and a gift to the field. Her critical work in this volume ensures that generations of readers will recognize the novel as a touchstone in their literary educations and imaginations.… Like all the best critical and cultural editions, it serves as a model for the kind of scholarship we want to write and help our students to write. The contextual materials that bookend Mitchell’s introduction and the novel itself serve not only as citations for her critical throughlines but also as an invitation to readers to be more aware of how they read texts through one another. Mitchell has produced an unparalleled resource that positions Iola Leroy as a definitive text, and her editorial provocation urges us to keep reading, rereading, and reconsidering this novel.” —Mollie Barnes, Legacy“Koritha Mitchell’s new cultural edition of Harper’s fourth novel, Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows of Uplift (first published in 1892), provides a compelling new entry in this tradition and an indispensable resource for those who assign Harper regularly or who have hesitated to teach Iola out of concern for the syllabus space required to get students up to speed on its historical and cultural contexts. Mitchell’s introduction on its own is worth the price of admission, as it synthesizes the latest work in Harper studies and situates Iola within it. … In addition to her biographical and bibliographic work, Mitchell offers a fresh take on Iola’s form and politics. Iola, Mitchell posits, ‘exemplifies the dynamism and complexity of … “community conversation” … the broad, dynamic discussions among African Americans about the countless issues affecting community members’ life chances and well-being’ (30). Throughout, Mitchell foregrounds Harper’s abiding faith in black communities and incisive critiques of white supremacy.…“Mitchell’s critical apparatus speaks to previous scholars’ monumental efforts to make Harper studies a robust field. It speaks also to an ethics of citation that should be emulated. This cultural edition offers the nineteenth century in a box, robust enough to anchor a course in which Iola represents either the ‘early’ or ‘late’ text. Mitchell’s attention to the intersections of form, literary history, and politics make it an ideal edition for graduate seminars, exam lists, and research, as well.” — Derrick R. Spires, African American ReviewTable of Contents Appendix A: Slavery, Civil War & Emancipation, Reconstruction & Its Demise 1. Fugitive Slave Act (1850) 2. United States Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney, The Dred Scott Decision (1857) 3. First Confiscation Act (1861) 4. Second Confiscation Act (1862) 5. The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) 6. The Freedmen's Bureau Act (1865) 7. The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) 8. The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) 9. The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) 10. The Compromise of 1877 11. United States Supreme Court Justice Billings Brown, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Appendix B: Not White? Then, You Can't Be Equal 1. 1. Abraham Lincoln, Address on Colonization to a Deputation of Negroes (1862) 2. 2. Frances Harper, ""Mrs. Frances E. Watkins Harper on the War and the President's 3. Colonization Scheme"" (1862) 4. 3. Michigan Supreme Court Justice James Campbell, The People v. Dean (1866) Appendix C: Black Families in Slavery and Freedom 1. From Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass… (1845) 2. Dictated Letter, from enslaved husband to wife when separated by owner 3. Dictated Letter, from enslaved husband to wife when separated by owner 4. Dictated letter, from enslaved wife to husband when separated by owner 5. ""Arrest of Fugitive Slaves,"" Cincinnati Gazette (29 January 1856) 6. Frances Harper, ""The Slave Mother: A Tale of Ohio"" (1857) 7. Testimony about enslaved men and women who escaped slavery to join the Union 8. effort and often planned to return to help family members escape (1863) 9. Letter from a black soldier to his children (1864) 10. Letter from a black soldier to the owner of one of his daughters (1864) 11. Notices in hopes of finding lost loved ones after Emancipation a. From Colored Tennessean (Nashville) (24 March 1866) b. From Christian Recorder (24 March 1866) c. From Christian Recorder (28 January 1871) d. From Southwestern Christian Advocate (17 July 1879) e. From Christian Recorder (5 October 1882) f. From Christian Recorder (3 January 1884) g. From Loyal Georgian (Augusta, Ga.) (13 October 1886) h. From Christian Recorder (6 January 1893) Appendix D: Education in Slavery and Freedom 1. A law making the education of enslaved people illegal 2. Account about an enslaved woman who ran a midnight school 3. Account of teaching/learning in secret during slavery 4. An account of finding the spark for learning while enslaved 5. Accounts of the consequences of learning to read and write 6. Account of black soldiers wanting education 7. Account of recently emancipated people's eagerness to learn 8. Testimony on KKK preventing school attendance after Emancipation Appendix E: Preventing Freedom Even After Emancipation 1. Laws constraining black girls and boys via apprenticeship and African Americans of every age via vagrancy statutes (1865) 2. Testimony about KKK raping black women whose husbands/fathers voted (1871) 3. From Henry W. Grady, ""The Race Problem in the South"" (1889) 4. From Ida B. Wells, The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States (1895) Appendix F: Black Women's Activism 1. Frances Harper, ""We Are All Bound Up Together"" (1866) 2. Frances Harper, ""Aunt Chloe's Politics"" (1872) 3. Frances Harper, ""Colored Women of America"" (1878) 4. Frances Harper, ""The Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Colored Woman"" (1888) 5. Frances Harper, ""Enlightened Motherhood: An Address … Before the Brooklyn Literary Society"" (15 November 1892) 6. Fannie Barrier Williams, ""The Intellectual Progress of The Colored Women of the United States Since The Emancipation Proclamation"" (1893) Appendix G: Being Black and a Woman: Aesthetics and Reception 1. William J. Watkins, ""The Reformer"" (1854) 2. Grace Greenwood, Impressions of Harper as a speaker (1866) 3. From Anna Julia Cooper, ""The Status of Woman in America"" (1892) 4. ""Publications Reviewed,"" Christian Recorder (12 January 1893) 5. ""Review 1,"" The Independent (5 January 1893) 6. Richmond Planet (21 January1893) 7. ""Recent Fiction,"" The Nation (23 February 1893) 8. From ""Our Book List,"" The A.M.E. Church Review (April 1893) 9. ""Book Review,"" Friends' Review; a Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal (22 June 1893) 10. Review of Reviews (January 1895) 11. ""Recent Fiction,"" The Independent (29 October 1896) 12. Edward Elmore Brock, ""Brock's Literary Leaves,"" Freeman (Indianapolis) (14 August 1897) 13. [W.E.B. Du Bois], ""Writers,"" Crisis (April 1911)

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