Criticism

Two Rossetti Sonnets Commemorating a Momentous Occasion

Submitted by David Rettenmaier on

Two Rossetti Sonnets Commemorating a Momentous Occasion

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra

A Sonnet is a moment's monument,—

Memorial from the soul's eternity

To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,

Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,

Of its own intricate fulness reverent:

Carve it in ivory or in ebony,

As Day or Night prevail; and let Time see

Its flowering crest impearled and orient.

Magazine and Book Illustrations for The Were-Wolf

Submitted by David Rettenmaier on

Magazine and Book Illustrations for The Were-Wolf

Clemence Housman published The Were-Wolf twice in her lifetime: first as a story in a popular magazine and then as a book. Each time the novella was accompanied by a unique set of illustrations that shaped its reception. This essay examines the contrasting meanings for The Were-Wolf created by their accompanying illustrations, modes of production, and publication venues. 

"The Cry of the Children" (1843) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Submitted by Joshua King on

This is the first omnibus scholarly edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's (then Elizabeth Barrett Barrett) protest poem "The Cry of the Children" (1843), as it was published in Blackwood's Magazine.  The editors and annotators have built on sustained scholarly engagement about the poem, its contexts, and its relationship with laboring-class poetry of the time.  This was initiated by their cooperation for "Rhyme and Reform: Victorian Working-Class Poets and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 'Cry of the Children.'"  This two-day, international, multi-site symposium (Oct.

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A Mystery in Scarlet: Editorial Introduction

Submitted by Rebecca Nesvet on
August, 2020

Robert Louis Stevenson, celebrated author of Treasure Island  (1882-3), Kidnapped (1886), and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) was a lifelong connoisseur of "penny dreadfuls": illustrated serial fiction that targeted working-class readers. In Stevenson's childhood, his nurse Alison Cunningham often read dreadfuls to him. In adulthood, Stevenson was haunted by one serial in particular. This was A Mystery in Scarlet by “Malcolm J. Errym,” the pseudonym of James Malcolm Rymer (1814-84).

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