Briefer Mention

BRIEFER MENTION Horn, Pamela. The Changing Countryside in Victorian and Edwardian England and Wales. London: Athlone Press; Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 1984. $25.00 Horn offers a picture of rural society during the late nineteen and early twentieth centuries. Says Horn, "This book seeks to trace the course of change within the country community during what was, in many respects, a watershed in the nation's history. Already by 1851 a majority of Enghsh men and women had ceased to dwell in rural areas. But it was between 1870 and 1918 that the centuries-old predominance of country life and attitudes was finally swept aside by industrialisation and by war. It was in these years that the economic, social and political subordination of the agriculture interest to manufacturing industry and the service sector was irrevocably established." Milbauer, Asher Z. Transcending Exile: Conrad, Nabokov, I. B. Singer. Miami: Florida International Univ. Press, 1985. $18.00 Milbauer presents a comparative study of the Uves and works of three writers and their common experience of exile. ELT readers will want to note Chapter I (Joseph Conrad: Marginal Existence). Says Milbauer: "Conrad's entire literary creation reflects his perpetual efforts to come to terms with his own transplanted existence. A detailed interpretation of Conrad's short story 'Amy Foster' as well as somewhat shorter reviews of 'Heart of Darkness,' Under Western Eyes, and Victory will Ulustrate this assertion." Mrs. Oliphant, Hester. Intro, by Jennifer Uglow. New York: Penguin (Virago Modem Classics), 1984. Paper $7.95 Also, Vita SackviUe-West. No Signposts in the Sea. Intro, by Victoria Glendinning. New York: Penguin (Virago Modem Classics), 1985. Paper $6.95 We regularly bring your attention to such reprints and both of these contain useful introductions. Hester (1883), says Uglow, "may surprise readers today by its overtly feminist tone, since if they have any preconceived image of the author, it is likely to be the anti-feminist of the 1850s or the upholder of moral purity revealed in the attack on Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the 1890s. But while Mrs. Oliphant always retained conservative views on female sexuality she became increasingly radical in her perception of the wide spread ano disabling sexism rooted in the consciousness of both men and women. It is this prejudice, rather than legal or social institutions, which she attacks in Hester." Says Glendinning, Vita SackvUle-West had "always wanted to write an honest novel about marriage; and she had never pubhshed any prose work that dealt directly with what had made and marred her own marriage—her sexual and emotional complexity. No Signposts in the Sea is the nearest she got to either. It exhibits her innate seriousness, her strengths as a craftsman and her limitations—heartbreaking, to her—as an artist. It is a moving and original book: it is her fictional testament." 108 Tanner, Tony. The Writer and His Work: Henry James. Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1985. $17.50 Tanner provides an introduction to James and his writings. Chapter I (America and Europe, 1843-1881: "A Complex Fate") surveys James's achievements to the age of thirty-eight, culminating in The Portrait of a Lady. Chapter Π(London, 1882-1898: "The Compendium of the World") contains an appreciation of The Bostonians, The Princess of Casamassima, The Tragic Muse, as well as travel writings and short stories. Chapter UJ (Lamb House, 1899-1916: "The Divine Unresr) concludes with James's last years at Rye and devotes most of its space to The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl. A select bibliography is included. BOOKS RECEIVED Attridge, Derek, and Daniel Ferrer. Post-Structuralist Joyce: Essays from the French. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984. $34.50 Forster, E. M. The Longest Journey [Abinger Edition 2]. Ehzabeth Heine, ed. London: Edward Arnold; New York: Holmes & Meir, 1984. $69.50 Gissing, George. A Life's Morning. New York: Methuen, 1985. Paper $8.95 HiU, Alan G., ed. Letters of Dorothy Wordsworthy: A Selection. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1985. $15.95 Hostettler, Maya. D. H. Lawrence: Travel Books and Fiction. Frankfurt and New York: Peter Lang, 1984. $22.50 Russell, Charles. Poets, Prophets, & Revolutionaries: The Literary AVant-garde from...