Books in Norton Critical Editions series

“Noted Harlem Renaissance scholar Carla Kaplan here offers a new edition of Nella Larsen’s Quicksand with an acute introduction comprising both biography and critical survey. With its careful scholarly scaffolding, this superbly useful edition will benefit teacher and student alike.” ―RAFIA ZAFAR, Washington University in Saint LouisThis Norton Critical Edition includes: Nella Larsen’s stunning 1928 novel, accompanied by Carla Kaplan’s full and far-reaching introduction and explanatory annotations.Twenty-seven carefully chosen reviews of one of the Harlem Renaissance’s most sensational literary debuts as well as contemporary biographical and cultural contexts.Related writings by Nella Larsen repudiating racial stereotypes.Major critical assessments by Laura Doyle, Ann duCille, Lori Harrison-Kahan, Arne Lunde and Anna Westerstahl Stenport, Deborah McDowell, Hanna Musiol, Susan M. Reverby, and Cherene Sherrard-Johnson.A chronology and a selected bibliography. About the Series Read by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format―annotated text, contexts, and criticism―helps students to better understand, analyze, and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.

This Norton Critical Edition includes both Three Lives and Q.E.D., first published in 1909 and 1950, respectively.Three Lives is comprised of the stories "The Good Anna," "Melanchtha," and "The Gentle Lena." "Melanchtha" is an adaptation of Q.E.D., Stein’s first completed novel, which remained unpublished until four years after her death. "Contexts" is divided into two sections―"Biography" and "Intellectual Backgrounds"―that highlight the inspirations for and evolutions of Three Lives and discuss the difficult reception Stein’s experimental writing met with in the publishing world. "Criticism" collects 19 chronologically arranged essays on Stein’s life and work, from pieces written during the decades in which her work was regarded as important primarily for its influence on writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Sherwood Anderson to the more laudatory scholarship of recent years. Feminism and form, queer studies, interrelations of race and sexuality, African American studies, and primitivism and eugenics are all represented. Among the critical pieces are William Carlos Williams’s commentary on Stein’s complexity and originality, Richard Bridgman’s study of Stein’s work as a possible compensation and camouflage for her lesbianism, and Lisa Ruddick’s essay connecting feminist analysis to theories of consciousness. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

The text of this revised Norton Critical Edition of Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel is based on the Louise and Aylmer Maude translation. The editor has made revisions where appropriate; the annotations have also been revised and expanded. Three maps of Napoleon’s campaigns and battles in Russia are included, making the military aspects of the novel easier to follow. "Backgrounds and Sources" includes the publication history of War and Peace, selections from Tolstoy’s letters and diaries as well as three drafts of his introduction to the novel that elucidate the its evolution, and an 1868 article by Tolstoy in which he reacts to his critics. "Criticism" includes twenty essays, seven of them new, that provide diverse perspectives on the novel by Nikolai Strakhov, V. I. Lenin, Henry James, Isaiah Berlin, D. S. Mirsky, Kathryn Feuer, Lydia Ginzburg, Richard Gustafson, Gary Saul Morson, and Caryl Emerson, among others. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

The best-selling Early American novel is now available in a Norton Critical Edition. An instant bestseller when it was published in America, the sentimental novel Charlotte Temple speaks to the popularity of the genre―and the public thirst for fiction―from the early national period and beyond. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the first American edition of 1794; the author’s original spellings have been maintained. It is accompanied by a detailed introduction, explanatory annotations, and A Note on the Text. An unusually rich “Contexts” section is thematically organized into four parts―“Women in Early America: Intellect, Education, Sexuality,” “Reading in Early America,” “The American Sentimental,” and “Selections from Rowson’s Writings”―and includes works from Rowson’s time to our own. Ten illustrations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are reproduced to further enrich the reading experience. “Criticism” collects thirteen insightful assessments of Charlotte Temple spanning four centuries and addressing its central issues. Contributors include Matthew Carey, Samuel L. Knapp, Larzer Ziff, Jane P. Tompkins, Gareth Evans, Julia A. Stern, and Marion Rust, among others. A Chronology of Susanna Rowson’s life and works and a Selected Bibliography are also included.

“Lloyd Kermode’s Norton Critical Edition of The Jew of Malta succeeds in making this challenging play eminently teachable by providing a carefully edited, modernized text complete with clear annotations and a judicious selection of contextual and critical materials. Particularly valuable is the way that the volume allows students to see how understandings of the play and its depiction of Jews have changed over time. Kermode’s gathering of contextual materials offers a convenient and much-needed resource for getting to grips with the challenges of ‘otherness’ both in the early modern world and in our own.” - Dympna C. Callaghan, Syracuse UniversityThis Norton Critical Edition includes:The 1633 quarto (Q) text―the only authoritative version--with modernized spelling and silent alteration of obvious errors, of confusing punctuation, and of word-form changes. A Textual Notes section follows the play.Editorial matter by Lloyd Kermode.Six illustrations and one map.An unusually rich selection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century contexts, thematically organized to promote classroom discussion. Topics include “Theater and Marlowe,” “Machiavelli and Mediterranean Identities,” and “Ideas of the Jew.”Twenty-seven critical interpretations spanning three centuries and including seven considerations of The Jew of Malta in performance.A chronology and a selected bibliography.About the SeriesRead by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format―annotated text, contexts, and criticism―helps students to better understand, analyze, and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.

“All the world’s a stage.” Shakespeare’s beloved pastoral comedy is now available in a Norton Critical Edition. Since its return to the London stage in 1740, As You Like It has delighted theatergoers, readers, and critics. Its heroine, Rosalind, is one of Shakespeare’s greatest characters. The play’s Forest of Arden setting and its focus on the relationship between natural occurrences and things created by humans (Shakespeare collectively termed these “art”) provide us with access to debates in Renaissance England that relate to the ecological issues of our own time. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1623 First Folio text. It is accompanied by a note on the text, eight illustrations, six photographs, and explanatory annotations. “Sources and Contexts” includes, in its entirety, Shakespeare’s primary source for the play―Thomas Lodge’s popular prose romance Rosalynde (1590). Reading Shakespeare’s play with (and against) Lodge’s romance reveals striking similarities and fascinating differences, both large and small. An array of other readings focuses on the central areas of gender and ecology and includes works by Michel de Montaigne, Sir Thomas More, Thomas Bastard, George Gascoygne, and William Prynne. A rich “Criticism” section includes twenty-one commentaries on As You Like It spanning four centuries. Contributors include, among others, Mrs. Anna Jameson, Clara Claiborne Park, Jean E. Howard, Marjorie Garber, James Shapiro, Valerie Traub, Jeffrey Masten, and Robert Smallwood. A Selected Bibliography is also included.

This Norton Critical Edition reprints the 1897 editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and the 1876 edition of The Hunting of the Snark. New to the Second Edition is "The Wasp in a Wig," a recently discovered episode Carroll deleted from Through the Looking-Glass, but which fits into the story in interesting ways. Each text is accompanied by ample explanatory notes. "Backgrounds" reprints new selections from recent biographies of Carroll and from recent editions of his diaries and letters. Our understanding of and appreciation for Carroll’s life and literature are deepened by new contributions from Anne Clark, Tony Beale, E. M. Rowell, and, most revealingly, Carroll himself. "Criticism" retains seven seminal critiques from the First Edition while adding four important recent essays by Nina Auerbach, Roger Henkle, Robert Polhemus, and Donald Rackin. A revised and updated Selected Bibliography is also included.

“A Passage to India is one of the greatest modern novels about empire. Paul Armstrong’s thoughtful and wide-ranging edition provides historical context, a history of the novel’s reception, and recent critical debate. It will be invaluable for classroom use.” ―PERICLES LEWIS, Yale UniversityThis Norton Critical Edition includes:The text of E. M. Forster’s 1924 masterpiece, accompanied by Paul B. Armstrong’s masterful introduction and expert annotations.Carefully chosen illustrations and a textual appendix to deepen student appreciation for and understanding of the novel.A rich collection of background and contextual materials thematically organized to encourage classroom discussion. Topics include “India and Empire,” “The Author and India,” and “The Author and the Novel.”“Criticism,” including thirteen contemporary responses from both Indian and British voices as well as eleven wide-ranging modern essays by, among others, Lionel Trilling, Wilfred Stone, Brenda R. Silver, Sara Suleri, Homi K. Bhabha, Benita Parry, Stuart Christie, Amardeep Singh, Carey J. Snyder, and Ambreen Hai.Earl G. Ingersoll’s consideration of the David Lean film adaptation of A Passage to India.A chronology and a selected bibliography. About the Series Read by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format―annotated text, contexts, and criticism―helps students to better understand, analyze, and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.

How the Other Half Lives occupies a premier place on a small list of American books―along with Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Jungle, Silent Spring, The Feminine Mystique, and Unsafe at Any Speed―that changed public opinion, influenced public policy, and left an indelible mark on history. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1901 Scribner edition and includes all 47 of Riis’s unforgettable photographs, along with 2 maps. It is accompanied by Hasia Diner’s insightful introduction and detailed explanatory annotations. An unusually rich “Contexts” section includes autobiographical writings by Riis, observations of “the other half” by Riis contemporaries, including William T. Elsing, Thomas Byrnes, William Dean Howells, Lilliam W. Betts, John Spargo, and Lillian Wald, and contemporary evaluations of Riis and his seminal book by, among others, Warren P. Adams, Joseph B. Gilder, Margaret Burton, and Theodore Roosevelt.From the many hundreds of books and articles published on Riis and How the Other Half Lives, Hasia Diner has selected nineteen interpretations of the central aspects of author and work. Among these are Jacob Prager on Riis as immigrant and crusader; Louise Ware on Riis the police reporter, reformer, and “useful citizen”; Roy Lubove on the Progressive Movement and tenement reform; Richard Tuerk on Riis and the Jews; Maren Strange on American social documentary photography; Katrina Irving on immigrant mothers; and Timothy J. Gilfoyle on “street culture” and immigrant children.A Chronology of Riis’s life and work and a Selected Bibliography are also included. 49 illustrations; 2 maps

Originally published in 1923, Cane is a literary masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance. The growing interest in African-American literature that began in the 1960's led to the rediscovery of earlier African-American writers, one of whom is Jean Toomer, author of Cane. It is an innovative literary work―part drama, part poetry, part fiction. "Backgrounds" contains generous excerpts from Jean Toomer's correspondence with fellow writers Sherwood Anderson, Waldo Frank, and Allen Tate, and with his publisher, Horace Liveright. Darwin T. Turner's "Introduction" (to the 1975 Liveright edition of Cane), reprinted here, presents the historical and literary backgrounds of the work, as well as additional biographical information on Toomer. "Criticism", both contemporary and recent, on Cane and Toomer is wide-ranging and includes essays by W. E. B. Du Bois, Gorham B. Munson, Robert Bone, Patricia Watkins, Lucinda H. MacKethan, Nellie Y. McKay, and Darwin T. Turner.

Determined that her baby son Tom shall not share her fate and remain in slavery, Roxy secretly exchanges him with his playmate Chambers, the son of her master. The two boys' lives in the quiet Missouri town of Dawson's Landing remain entwined even though they take very different directions. The indulged Tom (now heir to a fortune rightfully that of Chambers) goes to Yale, where he learns how to drink and gamble, while Chambers looks set to remain a subservient drudge. But then a strange sequence of events begins - one in which the much-derided lawyer, 'Pudd'nhead' Wilson, has a key part to play - and changes everything. Darkly ironic, blending farce and tragedy, "Pudd'nhead Wilson" is a complex and fascinating depiction of human nature under slavery.