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Books in Norton Critical Editions series

  • The Classic Fairy Tales

    Maria Tatar

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, Dec. 12, 2016)
    "This is a superb anthology of fairy tales and criticism that is perfect for classroom use. It provides an excellent selection of primary and secondary texts, organized to permit a wide variety of approaches to teaching the fairy tale. Tatar's introductions to each section are balanced, up-to-date, and provocative."--Donald Haase, Wayne State University"Wonderful, comprehensive book!" Hope L. Russell, SUNY Buffalo"I have used this textbook for four courses on children's literature with enrollments of over ninety students. It is without doubt the most well organized selection of literary fairy tales and critical commentaries currently available. Students love it." ―Lita Barrie, California State University, Los Angeles This Norton Critical Edition includes: · Seven different tale types: "Little Red Riding Hood," "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White," "Sleeping Beauty," "Cinderella," "Bluebeard," and "Tricksters." These groupings include multicultural versions, literary rescriptings, and introductions and annotations by Maria Tatar. · Tales by Hans Christian Andersen and Oscar Wilde. · More than fifteen critical essays exploring the various aspects of fairy tales. New to the Second Edition are interpretations by Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Lüthi, Lewis Hyde, Jessica Tiffin, and Hans-Jörg Uther. · A revised and updated Selected Bibliography.
  • The Tempest

    William Shakespeare, Peter Hulme, William H. Sherman

    Paperback (W, )
    None
  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

    Frederick Douglass, William L. Andrews, William S. McFeely Ph.D.

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, Aug. 31, 2016)
    This revision of the acclaimed and widely assigned Norton Critical Edition of Frederick Douglass’s great autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself includes key examples of literary and cultural analyses that have engaged scholars over the last three decades. This Norton Critical Edition includes: - Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Narrative, the most influential autobiography of its kind. - A preface and explanatory footnotes by William L. Andrews and William S. McFeely. - Contemporary perspectives by Douglass, Margaret Fuller, James Monroe Gregory, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. - Essays by William L. Andrews, William S. McFeely, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah E. McDowell, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Jeannine Marie DeLombard, and Robert D. Richardson, Jr. - A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography.
  • The Brothers Karamazov

    Fyodor Dostoevsky, Susan McReynolds

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, April 15, 2011)
    The Second Edition of the Norton Critical Edition of The Brothers Karamazov is based on a significantly revised translation by Susan McReynolds. The text is accompanied by a detailed introduction, a pronunciation and explanation key for the novel’s main characters, and greatly revised and expanded explanatory annotations. “Contexts” presents a wealth of background and source materials relating to The Brothers Karamazov, to Dostoevsky’s own experiences, to current events, and to observations on a changing society. Included are the correspondence of influential literary and social critic Vissarion Grigorievich Belinksy and the author’s letters spanning three decades as well as a selection from Dostoevsky’s Diary of a Writer in which readers may trace the origins of this novel. “Criticism” offers a wide range of scholarly commentary on The Brothers Karamazov from American, Russian, and European authors, eleven of them new to the Second Edition and two of them appearing in English for the first time. Contributors include Ralph Matlaw, Valentina Vetlovskaia, Seamas O’Driscoll, William Mills Todd, Vladimir Kantor, Edward Wasiolek, Nathan Rosen, Roger B. Anderson, Robin Feuer Miller, Horst-Jürgen Gerigk, Vladimir Golstein, Robert L. Belknap, Ulrich Schmid, and Gary Saul Morson. A Chronology of Dostoevsky’s life and work and a Selected Bibliography are also included.
  • The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

    James Weldon Johnson, Jacqueline Goldsby

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, Feb. 12, 2015)
    The Norton Critical Edition of this influential Harlem Renaissance novel includes related materials available in no other edition. Known only as the “Ex-Colored Man,” the protagonist in Johnson’s novel is forced to choose between celebrating his African American heritage or “passing” as an average white man in a post-Reconstruction America that is rapidly changing. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1912 text. It is accompanied by a detailed introduction, explanatory footnotes, and a note on the text. The appendices that follow the novel include materials available in no other edition: manuscript drafts of the final chapters, including the original lynching scene (chapter 10, ca. 1910) and the original ending (chapter 11, ca. 1908). An unusually rich selection of “Backgrounds and Sources” focuses on Johnson’s life; the autobiographical inspirations for The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; the cultural history of the era in which Johnson lived and wrote; the noteworthy reception history for the 1912, 1927, and 1948 editions; and related writings by Johnson. In addition to Johnson, contributors include Eugene Levy, W. E. B. Du Bois, Carl Van Vechten, Blanche W. Knopf, and Victor Weybright among others. The four critical essays and interpretations in this volume speak to The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man’s major themes, among them irony, authorship, passing, and parody. Assessments are provided by Robert B. Stepto, M. Giulia Fabi, Siobhan B. Somerville, and Christina L. Ruotolo. A chronology of Johnson’s life and work and a selected bibliography are also included, as well as six images. 12
  • A Clockwork Orange

    Anthony Burgess, Mark Rawlinson

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, Jan. 4, 2011)
    “A brilliant novel . . . a savage satire on the distortions of the single and collective minds.” ―New York Times “Anthony Burgess has written what looks like a nasty little shocker, but is really that rare thing in English letters: a philosophical novel.” ―Time A terrifying tale about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom, A Clockwork Orange became an instant classic when it was published in 1962 and has remained so ever since. Anthony Burgess takes us on a journey to a nightmarish future where sociopathic criminals rule the night. Brilliantly told in harsh invented slang by the novel’s main character and merciless droog, fifteen-year-old Alex, this influential novel is now available in a student edition. The Norton Critical Edition of A Clockwork Orange is based on the first British edition and includes Burgess’s original final chapter. It is accompanied by Mark Rawlinson’s preface, explanatory annotations, and textual notes. A glossary of the Russian-origin terms that inspired Alex’s dialect is provided to illustrate the process by which Burgess arrived at the distinctive style of this novel. “Backgrounds and Contexts” presents a wealth of materials chosen by the editor to enrich the reader’s understanding of this unforgettable work, many of them by Burgess himself. Burgess’s views on writing A Clockwork Orange, its philosophical issues, and the debates over the British edition versus the American edition and the novel versus the film adaptation are all included. Related writings that speak to some of the novel’s central issues―youthful style, behavior modification, and art versus morality―are provided by Paul Rock and Stanley Cohen, B. F. Skinner, John R. Platt, Joost A. M. Meerloo, William Sargent, and George Steiner. “Criticism” is divided into two sections, one addressing the novel and the other Stanley Kubrick’s film version. Five major reviews of the novel are reprinted along with a wide range of scholarly commentary, including, among others, David Lodge on the American reader; Julie Carson on linguistic invention; Zinovy Zinik on Burgess and the Russian language; Geoffrey Sharpless on education, masculinity, and violence; Shirley Chew on circularity; Patrick Parrinder on dystopias; Robbie B. H. Goh on language and social control; and Steven M. Cahn on freedom. A thorough analysis of the film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange is provided in reviews by Vincent Canby, Pauline Kael, and Christopher Ricks; in Philip Strick and Penelope Houston’s interview with Stanley Kubrick; and in interpretive essays by Don Daniels, Alexander Walker, Philip French, Thomas Elsaesser, Tom Dewe Mathews, and Julian Petley. A Selected Bibliography is also included.
  • Le Morte Darthur

    Sir Thomas Malory, Stephen H. A. Shepherd

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, Oct. 3, 2003)
    The text is unabridged, with original spelling and extensive, easy-to-use marginal glosses and footnotes. No other edition accurately represents the actual (and likely authorial) divisions of the text as attested to by its two surviving witnesses―Caxton’s 1485 print and, especially, the famous Winchester Manuscript. The Winchester Manuscript is now generally agreed to be the more authentic of the two earlier texts. The Norton Critical Edition is the first edition of Malory to recover important elements of this manuscript: paragraphing marginal annotations hierarchies of narrative division as signaled by size and decorative intricacy of initial capitals and font changes The Norton Critical Edition also represents, in black-letter font, the striking rubrication of proper names in the Winchester Manuscript, reconstructing for readers something of an authentic medieval reading experience, one which gives visual support to Malory’s extraordinary representation, in character and setting, of a chivalric ideal. No other student edition of Malory contains such extensive contextual and critical support.
  • Moll Flanders

    Daniel Defoe, Albert J. Rivero

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, Nov. 25, 2003)
    Moll Flanders is one of the best-selling novels of all time. This Norton Critical Edition is again based on the first edition text (1722), the only text known to be Defoe’s own. It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and the editor’s essay outlining the novel’s textual history. “Contexts” collects related documents on criminal transport, contemporary accounts of lives of crime, and colonial laws as they applied to servants, slaves, and runaways. “Criticism” includes eleven interpretations by Juliet McMaster, Everett Zimmerman, Maximillian E. Novak, Henry Knight Miller, Ian A. Bell, Carol Kay, Paula B. Backscheider, John Rietz, Ann Louise Kibbie, John Richetti, and Ellen Pollak. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
  • Passing

    Nella Larsen, Carla Kaplan

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, Sept. 4, 2007)
    Nella Larsen is a central figure in African American, Modernist, and women’s literature. Larsen's status as a Harlem Renaissance woman writer was rivaled by only Zora Neale Hurston’s. This Norton Critical Edition of her electrifying 1929 novel includes Carla Kaplan’s detailed and thought-provoking introduction, thorough explanatory annotations, and a Note on the Text. An unusually rich “Background and Contexts” section connects the novel to the historical events of the day, most notably the sensational Rhinelander/Jones case of 1925. Fourteen contemporary reviews are reprinted, including those by Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Mary Griffin, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Published accounts from 1911 to 1935―by Langston Hughes, Juanita Ellsworth, and Caleb Johnson, among others―provide a nuanced view of the contemporary cultural dimensions of race and passing, both in America and abroad. Also included are Larsen’s statements on the novel and on passing, as well as a generous selection of her letters and her central writings on “The Tragic Mulatto(a)” in American literature. Additional perspective is provided by related Harlem Renaissance works. “Criticism” provides fifteen diverse critical interpretations, including those by Mary Helen Washington, Cheryl A. Wall, Deborah E. McDowell, David L. Blackmore, Kate Baldwin, and Catherine Rottenberg. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
  • Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

    Stephen Crane, Thomas A. Gullason

    Paperback (W, )
    None
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Ammons

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, Feb. 10, 2010)
    One of the most important activist texts in American Literature is now available in a thoroughly updated and revised Norton Critical Edition. In the nineteenth century, Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold more copies than any book in the world except the Bible. Upon publication, it was quickly translated into thirty-seven languages and has never gone out of print. It remains a controversial and complex text that, along with David Walker’s Appeal, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, W. E. B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk, and Helena María Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus, among others, stands out as an important text in the progressive struggle for social justice in the United States. This Second Edition is based on the original 1852 book edition, published in two volumes by John P. Jewett and Company, Boston, and includes all original illustrations. The text is accompanied by a preface and detailed explanatory annotations to assist the reader with obscure historical terms and biblical allusions. “Backgrounds and Contexts” includes a wealth of historical documents addressing the issues of slavery and abolitionism. New visuals in the Second Edition include a selection of abolition posters and records of torture. Also newly included is J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s eyewitness account of slavery as a visitor to the United States, a selection from David Walker’s Appeal, and Henrietta King’s autobiographical account of the horror of slavery. “Criticism” presents a balanced view of the ongoing controversy over Uncle Tom’s Cabin in fifteen reviews and scholarly interpretations spanning more than 150 years of writing about the novel. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jane P. Tompkins, and Susan M. Ryan, among others, admire Uncle Tom’s Cabin for its social vision and artistry, while James Baldwin and Sophia Cantave, among others, argue that the book’s racism continues to promote misperceptions and that its prominence does ongoing damage. A Chronology of Stowe’s life and work, a Brief Timeline of Slavery in America, and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included.
  • The Secret Garden

    Frances Hodgson Burnett, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina

    Paperback (W. W. Norton & Company, Jan. 23, 2006)
    Frances Hodgson Burnett was the highest paid and most widely read woman writer of her time, publishing more than fifty novels and thirteen plays. Born in England and transplanted to New York toward the end of the Civil War, Burnett made her home in both countries, and today both countries claim her as their own. The Secret Garden, her best-known work, became an instant modern classic and world-wide bestseller upon its publication in 1911. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based on the first edition and is accompanied by explanatory annotations. "Backgrounds and Contexts" and "Letters" illuminate important aspects of Burnett’s life and work and include her own writings on gardens and their spiritual healing. Four illustrations point to Burnett’s prominence in popular culture. "Criticism" includes fourteen contemporary reviews and nine recent critical views of The Secret Garden, including Jerry Phillips’s sociopolitical interpretation and Phyllis Bixler’s comparative analysis of the Broadway musical adaptation of the novel. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
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