A Critical Edition of Caroline Norton's Love in "The World"

by Ross Nelson (Editor), Marie Mulvey-Roberts (Editor)

Overview

Caroline Norton’s forgotten novel, which has remained unpublished until now, tells of the perils of courtship facing a naïve young girl Alixe, who has been launched onto the London social season. Her encounters with both a worthy and an undesirable suitor open an intriguing window onto the fashionable society of the 1820s in which Love in "the World" takes place. In placing her heroine in these predicaments Norton was able to draw upon her own experiences of the bon ton, as the time in which the novel is set coincides with her first ball in March 1826, when she burst upon the scene with all her beauty and brilliance, later recalling, “I came out […] to find all London at my feet.” She believed that London could be as callous as the metropolitan social scene might prove treacherous, and in alerting the reader to the dangers of fashionable society she makes ample use of her own observations as a debutante at her first London season. In a highly readable and coherent narrative with an indeterminate ending, which throws a spotlight onto her life and times, the plot of Love in 'the World' initially follows a pattern broadly representative of her own experience before developing in unexpected and surprising ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781839987281
Publisher:	Anthem Press
Publication date:	10/10/2023
Series:	Anthem Nineteenth-Century Series , #1
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ross Nelson is a cultural historian and author of several publications, including The Selected Letters of Caroline Norton, 3 vols (2019), co-edited with Marie Mulvey-Roberts, and Letters to Martin Van Buren: An Edition of John Van Buren’s ‘Travel journal for a Trip to Europe, 1838-1839’ (2022).

Marie Mulvey-Roberts is a Professor of English Literature at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She co-edited, with Ross Nelson, The Selected Letters of Caroline Norton, 3 vols (2020). She is Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Writing, the journal on historical women writers.

Table of Contents

Manuscript Cover Page and Frontispiece; Caroline Norton: England’s First Feminist Law-Maker; By Diane Atkinson; Introduction; By Ross Nelson and Marie Mulvey-Roberts; Editorial Note; Chronology; Foreword; By Ross Nelson and Marie Mulvey-Roberts; Volume I; Volume II; Notes; Publications, Websites and Archives Cited

Editorial Reviews

A newly uncovered novel by the rigorous feminist godmother and gender rights activist Caroline Norton is an exciting discovery and most welcome in our viral, pox-ridden times of post-truth. Nor-ton’s previously unpublished apprentice novel enhances our understanding of Regency literature before Victorian triple-deckers came to dominate the narrative landscape.” — Professor Oliver Lovesey, The University of British Columbia, Canada

“A wonderful new novel of the nineteenth century by the wonderful novelist, poet, songwriter and legal campaigner Caroline Norton.” — Diane Atkinson, Independent scholar, historian, lecturer and curator

“This first critical edition of Caroline Norton’s unpublished novel, Love in “the World”, is an invaluable contribution to the current rediscovery of forgotten texts. The volume scrupulously situates Norton’s novel within its historical and literary context, casting light onto the role of a Victorian popular writer and reformer of women’s rights.” — Mariaconcetta Costantini, G. d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara

From the Publisher