Description
Book SynopsisCaroline Norton’s forgotten novel, which has remained unpublished until now, tells of the perils of courtship facing a naïve young girl Alixe, who has been launched onto the London social season. Her encounters with both a worthy and an undesirable suitor open an intriguing window onto the fashionable society of the 1820s in which Love in "the World" takes place. In placing her heroine in these predicaments Norton was able to draw upon her own experiences of the bon ton, as the time in which the novel is set coincides with her first ball in March 1826, when she burst upon the scene with all her beauty and brilliance, later recalling, “I came out […] to find all London at my feet.” She believed that London could be as callous as the metropolitan social scene might prove treacherous, and in alerting the reader to the dangers of fashionable society she makes ample use of her own observations as a debutante at her first London season. In a highly readable and coherent narrative with an indeterminate ending, which throws a spotlight onto her life and times, the plot of Love in 'the World' initially follows a pattern broadly representative of her own experience before developing in unexpected and surprising ways.
Trade Review“A newly uncovered novel by the rigorous feminist godmother and gender rights activist Caroline Norton is an exciting discovery and most welcome in our viral, pox-ridden times of post-truth. Nor-ton’s previously unpublished apprentice novel enhances our understanding of Regency literature before Victorian triple-deckers came to dominate the narrative landscape.” — Professor Oliver Lovesey, The University of British Columbia, Canada
“A wonderful new novel of the nineteenth century by the wonderful novelist, poet, songwriter and legal campaigner Caroline Norton.” — Diane Atkinson, Independent scholar, historian, lecturer and curator
“This first critical edition of Caroline Norton’s unpublished novel, Love in “the World”, is an invaluable contribution to the current rediscovery of forgotten texts. The volume scrupulously situates Norton’s novel within its historical and literary context, casting light onto the role of a Victorian popular writer and reformer of women’s rights.” — Mariaconcetta Costantini, G. d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara
Table of ContentsManuscript Cover Page and Frontispiece; Caroline Norton: England’s First Feminist Law-Maker; By Diane Atkinson; Introduction; By Ross Nelson and Marie Mulvey-Roberts; Editorial Note; Chronology; Foreword; By Ross Nelson and Marie Mulvey-Roberts; Volume I; Volume II; Notes; Publications, Websites and Archives Cited
