One of the most important activist texts in American Literature is now available in a thoroughly updated and revised Norton Critical Edition.

In the nineteenth century, Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold more copies than any book in the world except the Bible. Upon publication, it was quickly translated into thirty-seven languages and has never gone out of print. It remains a controversial and complex text that, along with David Walker’s Appeal, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, W. E. B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk, and Helena María Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus, among others, stands out as an important text in the progressive struggle for social justice in the United States.

This Second Edition is based on the original 1852 book edition, published in two volumes by John P. Jewett and Company, Boston, and includes all original illustrations. The text is accompanied by a preface and detailed explanatory annotations to assist the reader with obscure historical terms and biblical allusions.

“Backgrounds and Contexts” includes a wealth of historical documents addressing the issues of slavery and abolitionism. New visuals in the Second Edition include a selection of abolition posters and records of torture. Also newly included is J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s eyewitness account of slavery as a visitor to the United States, a selection from David Walker’s Appeal, and Henrietta King’s autobiographical account of the horror of slavery.

“Criticism” presents a balanced view of the ongoing controversy over Uncle Tom’s Cabin in fifteen reviews and scholarly interpretations spanning more than 150 years of writing about the novel. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jane P. Tompkins, and Susan M. Ryan, among others, admire Uncle Tom’s Cabin for its social vision and artistry, while James Baldwin and Sophia Cantave, among others, argue that the book’s racism continues to promote misperceptions and that its prominence does ongoing damage. A Chronology of Stowe’s life and work, a Brief Timeline of Slavery in America, and an updated Selected Bibliography are also included.

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One of the most important activist texts in American Literature is now available in a thoroughly updated and revised Norton Critical Edition.

In the nineteenth century, Uncle… Развернуть 

As often as possible, the annotations to the text have been made by referring to James's other writings A map of Strether's Paris and a virtually unknown photograph of James, which originally appeared with the serial ofThe Ambassadors, have been added to this Second Edition, and the original frontispieces to the New York Edition of the novel have been reproduced in their proper sequence for the first time. "The Author on the Novel" contains James's notebook entries on the inspiration forThe Ambassadors as well as the long, remarkable preliminary statement that the author drew up before writing his novel. The selection of James's letters on The Ambassadors has also been expanded for the Second Edition. "Criticism" is comprised of fourteen essays that represent more than seventy years of analysis ofThe Ambassadors, by H. M. Alden, Percy Lubbock, E. M. Forster, F. O. Matthiessen, F. R. Leavis, Joseph Warren Beach, Joan Bennett, Leon Edel, Ian Watt, Sallie Sears, Nicola Bradbury, Maud Ellmann, Millicent Bell, and Philip Fisher. A Chronology and an expanded Selected Bibliography are also included.

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As often as possible, the annotations to the text have been made by referring to James's other writings A map of Strether's Paris and a virtually unknown photograph of James,… Развернуть 

The bored wife of a bumbling provincial physician, Emma seeks to escape from the tedium of her life with romantic fantasies and adulterous affairs, but is ultimately doomed to disillusionment. Unable to come to terms with reality, Emma is a figure at once noble and banal, tragic and absurd. With her wrenching story, Flaubert forged an unforgettable classic that has remained one of the most admired and influential novels ever written. That peerless twentieth-century stylist, Vladimir Nabokov, put the case memorably: "Without Flaubert there would have been no Marcel Proust in France, no James Joyce in Ireland. Chekhov in Russia would not have been quite Chekhov." This volume features rare archival materials from The New York Public Library, including etchings from a 1905 French limited edition of Madame Bovary and a sampling of Vladimir Nabokov's handwritten lecture notes on Flaubert.

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The bored wife of a bumbling provincial physician, Emma seeks to escape from the tedium of her life with romantic fantasies and adulterous affairs, but is ultimately doomed to… Развернуть 

The text of this Second Edition of one of Henry James's most important novels is that of the New York Edition (1908).
In a sense, there are two distinctly separate Portraits—the 1880-81 First Edition and the New York Edition, which James extensively revised. The editor has meticulously prepared a list of textual variants to facilitate comparative reading of the novel. Nina Baym, F. O. Matthiessen, and Anthony J. Mazzella provide differing interpretations of James's revision process.

Henry James and the Novel culls autobiographical excerpts from James's other writings—his Notebooks, the intentionally autobiographical A Small Boy and Others and Notes of a Son and Brother, and the travel books Italy Revisited, A Roman Holiday, and Roman Rides.

Contemporary Reviews and Criticism provides both chronological and critical perspective on The Portrait of a Lady. Four reviews from 1882 outline the novel's initial critical reception.

Seven important essays from the period 1954-1991 provide a wide range of critical responses by Dorothy Van Ghent, William H. Gass, Laurence B. Holland, Charles Feidelson, Louis Auchincloss, William Veeder, and Millicent Bell.

Bibliographical Aids includes judiciously selected secondary works on James from the wealth of material published yearly.

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The text of this Second Edition of one of Henry James's most important novels is that of the New York Edition (1908).
In a sense, there are two distinctly separate Portraits—the… Развернуть 

This all-new edition of Hawthorne’s celebrated 1851 novel is based on The Ohio State University Press’s Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
It is accompanied by thorough explanatory annotations and an insightful introduction to the novel and antebellum culture by Robert S. Levine.

"Contexts" brings together a generous selection of primary materials intended to provide readers with background on the novel’s central themes. Historical documents include accounts of Salem’s history by Thomas Maule, Robert Calef, Joseph B. Felt, and Charles W. Upham, which Hawthorne drew on for The House of the Seven Gables. The importance of the house in antebellum America—as a manifestation of the body, a site of genealogical history, and a symbol of the republic’s middle class—is explored through the diverse writings of William Andrus Alcott, Edgar Allan Poe, and J. H. Agnew, among others. The impact of technological developments on the novel, especially of daguerreotypy, is considered through the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Gustave de Beaumont, and Alexis de Tocqueville, among others. Also included are two of Hawthorne’s literary sketches—"Alice Doane’s Appeal" and "The Old Apple Dealer"—that demonstrate the continuity of Hawthorne’s style, from his earlier periodical writing to his later career as a novelist.

"Criticism" provides a comprehensive overview of the critical commentary on the novel from its publication to the present. Among the twenty-seven critics represented are Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James, Nina Baym, Eric Sundquist, Richard H. Millington, Alan Trachtenberg, Amy Schrager Lang, and Christopher Castiglia.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

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This all-new edition of Hawthorne’s celebrated 1851 novel is based on The Ohio State University Press’s Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
It is accompanied… Развернуть 

The Norton Critical Edition presents Tocqueville’s classic text in the Henry Reeves translation.

It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and an introduction addressing Democracy in America’s canonic and iconic place in American life. “Backgrounds” includes seven letters offering Tocqueville’s impressions of his nine-and-a-half month journey through the United States. Nine contemporary reviews, both American and European, trace Democracy in America’s varied initial reception. Thirteen “Interpretations” gauge Tocqueville’s influence on American political thought and on democracy’s legacy. Contributors include David Riesman, Max Lerner, Robert Nisbet, James T. Schleifer, Catherine Zuckert, Sheldon S. Wolin, Edward C. Banfield, Daniel T. Rodgers, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Sean Wilentz, Henry Steele Commager, James T. Kloppenberg, and Tamara M. Teale.

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The Norton Critical Edition presents Tocqueville’s classic text in the Henry Reeves translation.

It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and an introduction… Развернуть