Précis

BOOK REVIEWS Précis I Louise Kennelly University of North Carolina, Greensboro Allen, Grant. The Woman Who Did. Sarah Wintle, intro. Oxford Popular Fiction. 1895; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 140 pp. $8.95 The General Editor of the Oxford Popular Fiction series is David Trotter, with John Sutherland as Associate Editor. The aim of the series: To introduce, or reintroduce, some of the most influential literary myth-makers of the last 150 years—bestselling works of British and American fiction that have helped define a new style or genre and that continue to resonate in popular memory. From crime and historical fiction to romance, adventure, and social comedy, the series will build up into a library of books that lie at the heart of British and American popular culture." The Woman Who Did is publicized as an example of the "New Woman" novels of the 1890s, fiction inspired by contemporary debates about women's education, family life and sexual independence. The heroine, Herminia Barton , enters into relationships outside of marriage which made the novel controversial when it was first published, but it can now best be appreciated as an historical document. It "is not only one of the most notorious of the New Woman novels, but also one of the most conservative," writes editor Sarah Wintle to anyone still expecting to be intrigued. You'll sooner be bemused by how out-dated it is, she suggests. The Woman Who Did was first published in 1895 by John Lane as part of the Keynote Series. Bennett, Arnold. The Old Wives' Tale. Margaret Harris, ed. and intro. The World's Classics. 1909; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. xxix + 644 pp. $9.95 Bennett wrote a short story called The History of Two Old Women." That was revised and expanded as The Old Wives' Tale, considered by many to be Bennett's masterpiece, charting the lives of two sisters from the mid-Victorian period to the modern era. Bennett told André Gide when the novel was being translated in 1930: "I suppose that you know that 'an old wives' tale' is a proverbial story that no one believes. I have of course used it in an ironic sense." Edited with a good introduction and helpful explanatory notes by Margaret Harris, the text is based on the original Chapman and Hall edition of 1908. 139 ELT 39 :1 1996 Bennett, Arnold. Anna of the Five Towns. Margaret Harris, ed. and intro. The World's Classics. 1902; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. xxviii + 227 pp. $6.95 Professor Harris also edits and introduces Bennett's depiction of the hardships in the Potteries and the indomitable human urge to gain freedom and independence regardless of circumstance. Harris asserts that in Anna of the Five Towns "Bennett began decisively to stake out his fictional territory, mapped on the Potteries of Staffordshire where he grew up, emphasizing in this work the harsher aspects of the manufacturing world and its Methodism." This Oxford edition reproduces the first edition that appeared in 1902. Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Lost World. Ian Duncan, intro. Oxford Popular Fiction. 1912; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. xxiii + 189 pp. $7.95 Arthur Conan Doyle's classic adventure story still has the power to grip the imagination, especially since it features the ever-popular dinosaurs and Doyle's famous Professor Challenger. This Oxford edition includes an introduction by Ian Duncan and is true to the first published text that appeared from April to October 1912 in the Strand Magazine. "I have wrought my simple plan/ If I give an hour of joy," wrote Doyle. He may rest assured his plan was successful. Du Maurier, George. Trilby. Elaine Showalter, intro. Oxford Popular Fiction. 1894; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. xxv + 291 pp. $8.95 The story of the "diva Trilby OTerrall and her mesmeric mentor Svengali, entered the cultural mythology of the fin de siècle along with Dracula, Nora, and Sherlock Holmes," says Showalter in her introduction. Showalter hopes this edition will "put the novel back into its cultural contexts for a new generation. While there is still no definitive scholarly text of the novel," she continues, "this edition combines...