Literary studies (19th century)

From Haworth to Heathcliff and from Wildfell Hall to The Wide Sargasso Sea, The Oxford Companion to the Brontes provides comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date information on the lives, works, and afterlives of the three Bronte sisters. It is the first time so much information about the family has been gathered together in an accessible A-Z volume.

In-depth surveys of the Brontes’ lives and works and supplemented by entries on their friends and acquaintances, pets, literary and political heroes; on the places they knew and the places they imagined; on their letters, drawings, and paintings.

Extensive coverage of their juvenilia sheds light on their early imaginative worlds, while entries on the sequels and adaptations in film, theatre, and television convey the myriad ways their works live on.

‘Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous’ – Matthew Beaumont, Times Literary Supplement

Over 400 entries cover Conrad’s Conrad’s life (health, Polish inheritance, the sea, ships and voyages), people (Borys Conrad, Apollo and Ewa Korzeniowski, J. M. Barrie, Stephen Crane, Stefan Zeromski), places (America, Bangkok, Berdyczow, Congo, Cracow, Marseilles), novels (Almayer’s Folly, Lord Jim, Nostromo), stories, essays, and reviews (‘An Anarchist’, ‘Typhoon’, ‘Autocracy and War‘, ‘Legends’, ‘Tales of the Sea’), influences and sources (James Brooke, Alighieri Dante, Charles Dickens, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emile Zola), characters (Almayer family, Mr Jones, Jim, Captain Mitchell, Nostromo, the Professor, Edith Travers), reputation (biographies, films, influences on other writers, portraits and other images, translations), and historical context (First World War, Polish question, women’s suffrage movement).

Written in a lucid, easy style, The Oxford Reader’s Companion to Dickens draws together an unparalleled diversity of information on one of our greatest writers: his life, his works, his reputation, and his cultural context.

Dr Paul Schlicke and his distinguished team of contributors have created a unique volume that offers a more extensive and comprehensive range of information than any other reference work on Dickens, indispensible for students and general readers alike.

‘Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous’—Matthew Beaumont, Times Literary Supplement

Under the editorial guidance of John Rignall, over 50 literary scholars from a variety of backgrounds offer here the latest thinking and expertise on George Eliot, providing a rich diversity of information and critical insight into her fiction and its contexts, invaluable for both students and general readers.

‘Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous’—Matthew Beaumont, Times Literary Supplement

Norman Page, with the help of his team of expert contributors, presents here in one volume a unique synthesis of understanding and insight into the life and works of Thomas Hardy. By incorporating different national interests and traditions of scholarship, The Oxford Reader’s Companion to Hardy gives the assurance of sound knowledge, which is indispensable for students and general lovers of Hardy’s work.

Interest in the writing of Thomas Hardy never seems to falter, not just in scholarly circles but also among readers of Victorian fiction. Hardy was a prolific writer of both prose and poetry, he started writing in his teens and continued literally until the day of his death. His work is valued not only in terms of literature, but also in terms of the history, sociology, philosophy, folklore, and religion of his times.

Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous’ – Matthew Beaumont, Times Literary Supplement

The Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope encompasses all the latest scholarship on this fascinating writer in one single volume. Thirty-six contributors have come together to bring a wealth of biographical, bibliographical, and historical information to illuminate the wider literary and cultural context of Trollope's life and work. Over 500 A-Z entries cover Trollope's literature; his work as biographer, journalist and travel writer; subsequent criticism and praise of his work; his family members, friends, and acquaintances; the social context of his life; his influences and the things he influenced; his interests and ideas.