In this volume of essays, scholars of the interdisciplinary field of law and literature write about the role of emotion in English law and legal theory in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The law's claims to reason provided a growing citizenry that was beginning to establish its rights with an assurance of fairness and equity. Yet, an investigation of the rational discourse of the law reveals at its core the processes of emotion, and a study of literature that engages with the law exposes the potency of emotion in the practice and understanding of the law. Examining both legal and literary texts, the authors in this collection consider the emotion that infuses the law and find that feeling, sentiment and passion are integral to juridical thought as well as to specific legislation.

Jane Austen distinguished herself with genius in literature, but she was immersed in all of the arts. Austen loved dancing, played the piano proficiently, meticulously transcribed piano scores, attended concerts and art exhibits, read broadly, wrote poems, sat for portraits by her sister Cassandra, and performed in theatricals. For her, art functioned as a social bond, solidifying her engagement with community and offering order. And yet Austen’s hold on readers’ imaginations owes a debt to the omnipresent threat of disorder that often stems—ironically—from her characters’ socially disruptive artistic sensibilities and skill. Drawing from a wealth of recent historicist and materialist Austen scholarship, this timely work explores Austen’s ironic use of art and artifact to probe selfhood, alienation, isolation, and community in ways that defy simple labels and acknowledge the complexity of Austen’s thought. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.  

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was one of the most influential and controversial women of her age. No writer, except perhaps her political foe, Edmund Burke, and her fellow reformer, Thomas Paine, inspired more intense reactions. In her brief literary career before her untimely death in 1797, Wollstonecraft achieved remarkable success in an unusually wide range of genres: from education tracts and political polemics, to novels and travel writing. Just as impressive as her expansive range was the profound evolution of her thinking in the decade when she flourished as an author. In this collection of essays, leading international scholars reveal the intricate biographical, critical, cultural, and historical context crucial for understanding Mary Wollstonecraft's oeuvre. Chapters on British radicalism and conservatism, French philosophes and English Dissenters, constitutional law and domestic law, sentimental literature, eighteenth-century periodicals and more elucidate Wollstonecraft's social and political thought, historical writings, moral tales for children, and novels.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was one of the most influential and controversial women of her age. No writer, except perhaps her political foe, Edmund Burke, and her fellow reformer, Thomas Paine, inspired more intense reactions. In her brief literary career before her untimely death in 1797, Wollstonecraft achieved remarkable success in an unusually wide range of genres: from education tracts and political polemics, to novels and travel writing. Just as impressive as her expansive range was the profound evolution of her thinking in the decade when she flourished as an author. In this collection of essays, leading international scholars reveal the intricate biographical, critical, cultural, and historical context crucial for understanding Mary Wollstonecraft's oeuvre. Chapters on British radicalism and conservatism, French philosophes and English Dissenters, constitutional law and domestic law, sentimental literature, eighteenth-century periodicals and more elucidate Wollstonecraft's social and political thought, historical writings, moral tales for children, and novels.

The Court Journals and Letters of Frances Burney, 1790-91, is the sixth and final volume of Frances Burney's court journals and letters published by Oxford University Press. The journals and letters in this volume record Frances Burney's final eighteen months as Keeper of the Robes in Queen Charlotte's court. Burney had arrived at court in July of 1786, a reluctant but devoted royal servant. She tried to adjust to the isolation and confinement of court, but by 1790 Burney was increasingly distraught and her health was in rapid decline. She suffered a romantic disappointment when the Queen's Vice-Chamberlain, Col. Stephen Digby, who had befriended her, married a maid of honour, Charlotte Gunning. She was also discouraged when her attempts to secure a headmastership at Charterhouse for her brother Charles, and a ship for her brother James, both failed. She was in a state of extended nervous exhaustion. Still, despite her debilitations, Burney continued to provide accounts of the Warren Hastings trial, made note of rumours about war with Spain, and occasionally made reference to the turmoil in France. She met James Boswell, encountered her estranged friend Hester Piozzi, and corresponded with Horace Walpole over the will of her servant Columb. She worked on her historical tragedies, Edwy and Elgiva, Herbert De Vere, The Siege of Pevensey, and Elberta, and she conceived her next novel, Camilla. Yet Burney was determined to leave court. After securing the approval of her father, she presented a letter of resignation to the queen in December, although it was not until early July of 1791 that she departed Windsor and returned to her life as an author.