Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, first published serially in 1899 and then in book form in 1902, explores with unparalleled intensity the enormity of European imperialism in Africa. A prescient instance of what would become the literary movement known as modernism, the novella also experiments with frame narration and features a complex, highly figurative style.
The title poem of Christina Rossetti’s first commercially published collection of poetry, Goblin Market and Other Poems (Macmillan, 1862), “Goblin Market” has always delighted, perplexed, and inspired readers. A poetic fairytale expressed in deceptively simple form, and imbued with Pre-Raphaelite sensuality and spiritual symbolism, “Goblin Market” met its first public with two introductory illustrations designed by Rossetti’s brother, the artist Dante Gabriel. This edition of “Goblin Market” aims to present the poem in all the layered complexities of its production and reception and to illuminate the interpretive cruxes of the poem as these have been addressed by scholars and critics from the Victorian to the digital age. Led by co-editors Lorraine Janzen Kooistra (Ryerson U) and Antony Harrison (North Carolina State U), the team includes Mary Arseneau (U Ottawa), Alison Chapman (U Victoria), Margaret Linley (Simon Fraser U), Emma Mason (U Warwick), and Richard Menke (U Georgia).
"The Harlot's House" (1885; 1904) suggests why Oscar Wilde came to embody Victorian decadence and aestheticism, not just for his time and place but globally and ever since. This relatively early poem contains many of the aesthetic, political, and philosophical complexities that have come to characterize Wilde and the fin de siècle. This edition of "The Harlot's House" brings together some of the most influential Wilde scholars of the day, offering a rich current annotation of the work and the evolution of scholarship that has accrued to it. In addition to lead editors Regenia Gagnier (U Exeter) and Dennis Denisoff (Ryerson U), the team includes Stefano Evangelista (U Oxford), Natalie Houston (U Massachusetts Lowell), Diana Maltz (Southern Oregon U), Jamil Mustafa (Lewis U), and Mark Turner (King's College London).
