The Review of English Studies - current issue

The Review of English Studies Prize Essay: 'Preserving the Integrity of Incoherence'?: Dostoevsky, Gide and the Novel in Beckett's 1930 Lectures and Dream of Fair to Middling Women

Bolin, J. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

Readers have long recognised the importance of Joyce and Proust on Beckett's artistic theory and practise. Yet despite the impressive body of criticism documenting such influences, Beckett's significant debts to one of his greatest early masters, André Gide, have gone virtually unnoticed. The first part of this essay uses archival materials to reconstruct Beckett's theory of the modern novel at a crucial point in 1930, immediately following his Proust monograph and preceding his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, by only months. It is shown that Beckett's novelistic theory at this time shifted away from his thinking in Proust toward an emphasis on divided subjectivity (as articulated in Gide's Dostoievsky), fragmented form, and a ‘new structure’ of the novel in Les Faux-Monnayeurs. An examination of Dream's debts to Gide follows, and a new reading of the novel emerges. It is argued that in Dream Beckett deployed a counter-novelistic theory inspired by Gide and his Dostoevsky to parody and subvert what Beckett termed the ‘European’ tradition.

The Poetic Purpose of the Offa-Digression in Beowulf

Leneghan, F. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

The story of Offa and his bride interrupts the narrative of Beowulf at the seemingly inopportune moment of Beowulf's triumphant return to Hygelac's court. Scholars have struggled to explain the purpose of this passage, and it is often argued that it was clumsily added to the main body of the poem, perhaps in order to flatter Offa of Mercia or one of his descendants. More recently, the violent youth of Offa's; bride has attracted interest from feminist critics. But the poetic purpose of the story as a whole remains obscure. Considering the poem's pervasive interest in dynastic succession, I argue that the main purpose of this story is to foreground the benefits of royal marriage. This has implications for our understanding of Beowulf's subsequent career as king, during which he fails to marry or provide an heir, thereby placing his tribe at risk.

Responses to the Frame Narrative of John Gower's Confessio Amantis in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Scottish Literature

Martin, J. M. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

The manuscript and documentary evidence for the circulation of John Gower's poetry in late medieval and early modern Scotland indicates a continued interest in this English poet well into the sixteenth century. However, the nature of the literary responses made by Older Scots writers to John Gower's Confessio Amantis (c.1390–3) remains a neglected aspect of Anglo-Scottish literary relations in this period. This article demonstrates that Gower's English poem was regarded as an important part of the literary heritage of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Scottish writers and that they engaged with it in a number of creative and subtle ways. Three Scottish responses to the frame narrative of the Confessio Amantis are explored in detail: that found in the anonymous prose treatise, The Spectacle of Luf (c.1492), that of Gavin Douglas in The Palice of Honour (c.1501), and that of John Rolland's in his The Court of Venus (c.1560?). Through echoing or reworking specific narrative episodes and images from the framing device of the Confessio Amantis, these texts draw attention to their authors’ understanding of the thematic concerns of the English poem, and signal the importance of Gower's ethical and moral project to writers concerned with advice giving in late medieval and early modern Scotland.

A New Manuscript of Thomas More's 'Fortune Verses'

Edwards, A. S. G., Payne, M. T. W. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

This article describes and prints the text of a previously unknown manuscript of Thomas More's Fortune Verses in the Guildhall Library, London. This version of More's poem is of particular interest because only one other manuscript of the poem has previously been recorded. In addition, the manuscript is very early in date and can also be linked circumstantially to figures associated with More's circle of acquaintance. Moreover, the manuscript format of the poem suggests the possibility that it may have been copied from a now lost printed edition. A full collation and textual comparison with other versions of More's poem is also included.

The Ph{oelig}nix and the Prince: The Poetry of Thomas Ross and Literary Culture in the Court of Charles II

Bond, C. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

Thomas Ross (1620–1675), courtier, poet and tutor to the first Duke of Monmouth, is known principally because he was accused of encouraging Monmouth's hopes of the crown. But Ross's literary career deserves study, too, and this essay assesses the accusation against him as part of a fuller consideration of his life and writings. Ross was the first English translator of several works of Imperial Roman literature, and his version of Silius Italicus’ ‘Punica’, dedicated to Charles II, provides an illuminating example of how Classical literature was used by a courtier in a competition for the king's favour. But Ross also produced several anonymous pieces for Monmouth: an original poem on the Third Punic War and translations from Cicero and Claudian, together with a hitherto unstudied letter in MS. These works were plainly intended as mirrors for a prince. Monmouth was both a possible heir, with the favour of his royal father, but also illegitimate, with many enemies. Ross's consistently apt choices of examples and analogies for this peculiar situation demonstrate the learning and imagination behind his remarkable skill at refashioning the speculum principis. A proper examination of Ross thus advances our understanding not only of the history of translation and of a perplexing question of courtly intrigue, but also of the broader relationship between literature and politics in the Restoration.

'As Long-Winded as Possible': Southey, Coleridge, and The Doctor &c.

Chandler, D. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

From around 1813 until his death three decades later, Robert Southey was working on his eccentric, unfinished masterpiece, The Doctor &c. Although five volumes were published in his lifetime, and two more posthumously, the comic story of ‘Doctor Daniel Dove of Doncaster and his horse Nobs’ on which the work is based, and which is promised from the beginning, is never told. The present essay reveals what that originating story was, and traces it back to its appearance in Christopher Smart's periodical, the Midwife, in 1752. It shows that Southey almost certainly heard the story of Nobs from Coleridge, who was entertaining his friends with this piece of nonsense by 1799, and probably much earlier, making the original short tale ‘as long-winded as possible’. The expanded story was designed for improvised performance, and ‘never told twice alike’ ; the reasons why Southey, with Coleridge's encouragement, eventually decided to produce a written version are examined, as are his subsequent difficulties in writing it. The Doctor &c. is Southey's finest and most individual work, a monument to his love of silly stories and friendship with Coleridge.

Literary Classics in OED Quotation Evidence

Considine, J. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

This article discusses the use of quotation evidence from canonical literary texts in the Oxford English Dictionary. The proportionately high representation of quotations from authors such as Shakespeare and Scott in OED quotations has been discussed since the 1980s, and has been emphasised in some of the most important adverse criticism of the dictionary. After commenting on the historical background to the dictionary's treatment of literary quotation evidence, the article examines two kinds of claim which have been made about it: first, that the record of the English language is avoidably distorted by OED's past and continuing preference for quotations from canonical (and preponderantly male) authors, and second, that some choices made in the selection of quotation evidence appear to reflect the personal prejudices of OED editors. In evaluating these claims, it discusses the practicalities of gathering and replacing quotation evidence and the relationship of readers to different kinds of evidence, and analyses a number of OED entries with regard to the quotation material which they use or might have used.

SARAH STANBURY. The Visual Object of Desire in Late Medieval England.

Salih, S. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

JENNIFER SUMMIT. Memory's Library: Medieval Books in Early Modern England.

Matthews, D. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

GILLIAN AUSTEN. George Gascoigne.

Bates, C. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

DIANA E. HENDERSON (ed.). Alternative Shakespeares 3.

Hedrick, D. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

MARGARET JANE KIDNIE. Shakespeare and the Problem of Adaptation.

Aebischer, P., Barnes, J. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

EDWARD HOLBERTON. Poetry and the Cromwellian Protectorate: Culture, Politics, and Institutions

McDowell, N. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

DIANE KELSEY MCCOLLEY. Poetry and Ecology in the Age of Milton and Marvell.

Crabstick, B. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

PAUL DAVIS. Translation and the Poet's Life: the Ethics of Translating in English Culture, 1646-1726

Smallwood, P. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

JACK LYNCH. Deception and Detection in Eighteenth-Century Britain. * KATE LOVEMAN. Reading Fictions, 1660-1740

Bullard, R. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

ERIK SIMPSON. Literary Minstrelsy, 1770-1830: Minstrels and Improvisers in British, Irish, and American Literature.

McLane, M. N. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

ROSS WILSON (ed.). The Meaning of 'Life' in Romantic Poetry and Poetics.

Gigante, D. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

PAUL H. FRY. Wordsworth and the Poetry of What We Are

Offord, M. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

MARY POOVEY. Genres of the Credit Economy: Mediating Value in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain.

Lynch, D. S. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

DOUG UNDERWOOD. Journalism and the Novel: Truth and Fiction, 1700-2000.

Robertson, M. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

CATHERINE WATERS. Commodity Culture in Dickens's Household Words.

Buurma, R. S. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

CATHERINE MAXWELL. Second Sight: The Visionary Imagination in Late Victorian Literature.

Riede, D. G. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

SHAFQUAT TOWHEED (ed.). The Correspondence of Edith Wharton and Macmillan, 1901-1930.

Finkelstein, D. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

GABRIELLE MCINTIRE. Modernism, Memory, and Desire: T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf.

Crangle, S. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

DAVID PORTER. On the Divide: The Many Lives of Willa Cather.

Morley, C. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT

CHRISTINE BERBERICH. The Image of the Gentleman in Twentieth-Century Literature.

Lea, D. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:22:49 PDT