The short story has become an increasingly important genre since the mid-nineteenth century. Complementing The Cambridge Introduction to the American Short Story, this book examines the development of the short story in Britain and other English-language literatures. It considers issues of form and style alongside - and often as part of - a broader discussion of publishing history and the cultural contexts in which the short story has flourished and continues to flourish. In its structure the book provides a chronological survey of the form, usefully grouping writers to show the development of the genre over time. Starting with Dickens and Kipling, the chapters cover key authors from the past two centuries and up to the present day. The focus on form, literary history, and cultural context, together with the highlighting of the greatest short stories and their authors, make this a stimulating and informative overview for all students of English literature.

Gathers together Hogg's writing for magazines beyond Scotland Beginning with the short story 'The Long Pack', first published in a London miscellany in 1809, and concluding with 'The Rose of Plora', a poem printed posthumously in a New York eclectic magazine in 1841, the collection spans the full period of Hogg's life as a professional writer. Several pieces are reprinted in this book for the first time. A detailed introduction explores Hogg's complex relationship to the periodicals market in Scotland and overseas, while an extensive Appendix records the many hundreds of reprints of his work in newspapers and magazines around the world. Each text is introduced and fully annotated, and its publication history accounted for. A glossary aids readers unfamiliar with the Scots language.

James Kelman is one of the most important Scottish writers now living. His fiction is widely acclaimed, and widely caricatured. His art declares war on stereotypes, but is saddled with plenty of its own. This book attempts to disentangle Kelman's writing from his reputation, clarifying his literary influences and illuminating his political commitments. It is the first book to cover the full range and depth of Kelman's work, explaining his position within genres such as the short story and the polemical essay, and tracing his interest in anti-colonial politics and existential thought. Essays by leading experts combine lucid accounts of the heated debates surrounding Kelman's writing, with a sharp focus on the effects and innovations of that writing itself. Kelman's own reception by reviewers and journalists is examined as a shaping factor in the development of his career. Chapters situate Kelman's work in critical contexts ranging from masculinity to vernacular language, cover influences from Chomsky to Kafka, and pursue the implications of Kelman's rhetoric from Glasgow localism to 'World English'. Key Features: * The first major collection of essays on Kelman's work * Considers the full spectrum of Kelman's writing, from novels to polemics to plays * Explores a comprehensive range of Kelman's literary influences and critical contexts * Highlights the interplay of Kelman's political, linguistic and artistic agendas

First published in 1893, when Stephen Crane was only twenty-one years old, Maggie is the harrowing tale of a young woman's fall into prostitution and destitution in New York City's notorious Bowery slum. In dazzlingly vivid prose and with a sexual candour remarkable for his day, Crane depicts an urban sub-culture awash with alcohol and patrolled by the swaggering gangland "tough." Presented here with its companion piece George's Mother and a selection of Crane's other Bowery stories, this edition of Maggie includes a detailed introduction that places the novel in its social, cultural, and literary contexts. The appendices provide an unrivalled range of documentary sources covering such topics as religious and civic reform writing, slum fiction, the "new journalism," and literary realism and naturalism. An up-to-date bibliography of scholarly work on Crane is also included.

Set in early eighteenth-century Scotland, James Hogg's masterpiece is a brilliant psychological study of religious fanaticism and the power of evil. Led on by his sinister companion, Gil-Martin, Robert Wringhim commits a series of atrocious crimes. As the novel progresses, however, and the complexity of Wringhim's mind is revealed, the reader begins to doubt whether Gil-Martin even exists. This edition of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner places the work within the context of Calvinism, Scottish political and constitutional history, and early psychological theories of "double consciousness." A wide-ranging introduction discusses the novel in relation to its setting as well as to the period in which it was composed.

The short story has become an increasingly important genre since the mid-nineteenth century. Complementing The Cambridge Introduction to the American Short Story, this book examines the development of the short story in Britain and other English-language literatures. It considers issues of form and style alongside - and often as part of - a broader discussion of publishing history and the cultural contexts in which the short story has flourished and continues to flourish. In its structure the book provides a chronological survey of the form, usefully grouping writers to show the development of the genre over time. Starting with Dickens and Kipling, the chapters cover key authors from the past two centuries and up to the present day. The focus on form, literary history, and cultural context, together with the highlighting of the greatest short stories and their authors, make this a stimulating and informative overview for all students of English literature.

New scholarly essays on the short story in English as a phenomenon of world literature This collection explores the history and development of the anglophone short story since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Ranging across texts from different parts of the English-speaking world, it studies the form in its many guises and venues of publication. Why have writers of so many nationalities and dispositions found the short story amenable to experimentation and discovery? What is the history and origin of the modern short story, and what has been the role of the publishing business, of academic criticism, of the Creative Writing 'industry', and of the digital revolution in shaping and disseminating it over the past two centuries? This collection of innovative essays by new and established scholars explores these and other questions, addressing stories from around the world, and considering their relationship to place, identity, history and genre. Key Features New critical perspectives on the English-language short story by established scholars and new voices Provides an international perspective on the form Showcases a wide range of critical approaches and perspectives, including Book History, genre criticism, postcolonial theory, queer studies, feminist criticism, war writing, disability studies, Creative Writing, and ecocriticism

James Kelman is one of the most important Scottish writers now living. His fiction is widely acclaimed, and widely caricatured. His art declares war on stereotypes, but is saddled with plenty of its own. This book attempts to disentangle Kelman's writing from his reputation, clarifying his literary influences and illuminating his political commitments. It is the first book to cover the full range and depth of Kelman's work, explaining his position within genres such as the short story and the polemical essay, and tracing his interest in anti-colonial politics and existential thought. Essays by leading experts combine lucid accounts of the heated debates surrounding Kelman's writing, with a sharp focus on the effects and innovations of that writing itself. Kelman's own reception by reviewers and journalists is examined as a shaping factor in the development of his career. Chapters situate Kelman's work in critical contexts ranging from masculinity to vernacular language, cover influences from Chomsky to Kafka, and pursue the implications of Kelman's rhetoric from Glasgow localism to 'World English'. Key Features: * The first major collection of essays on Kelman's work * Considers the full spectrum of Kelman's writing, from novels to polemics to plays * Explores a comprehensive range of Kelman's literary influences and critical contexts * Highlights the interplay of Kelman's political, linguistic and artistic agendas