The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Selected Writings of Andrew Lang, Volume 2: Literary Criticism, History, Biography

The Selected Works Of Andrew Lang Volume 2: Literary Criticism, History, Biography Edited by Andrew Teverson, Alexandra Warwick and Leigh Wilson This is the first critical edition of the works of Andrew Lang (1844-1912), the Scottish writer whose enormous output spanned the whole range of late-nineteenth century intellectual culture. Neglected since his death, partly because of the diversity of his interests and the volume of his writing, his cultural centrality and the interdisciplinary nature of his work make him a vital figure for contemporary scholars. The volume demonstrates Lang’s central position in the literary culture of his day. It includes the most important examples of his literary journalism, his historical and his biographical writing. In these works, Lang engages with the most important literary critical issues of the period -- whether the novel is entertainment or art, the professionalization of writing, the function of fiction and criticism – and writes on some of the central literary figures of the century such as Tennyson, Dickens and Zola. In his writings on Scotland, history and biography too the selected work shows not only the complexity and inter-disciplinary nature of his own thought but illuminates contemporary debates on the nature of genius, on national identity and on historical method. Key Features: Unpublished archival material Critical introductions to the major areas of his work Full explanatory notes Andrew Teverson is Professor of English Literature and Associate Dean for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Kingston University, London. His research centres on the use and meaning of fairy tales, and he has published both on the employment of them in contemporary writing and on the historical development of the form. He is the author of Fairy Tale (Routledge, 2013). Alexandra Warwick is Professor of English Studies and Head of the Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster. Her research is on Victorian culture, in particular the fin de siècle. Leigh Wilson is Reader in Modern Literature in the Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster. Her research focuses on modernism, on the place of supernatural and occult beliefs and practices in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and on the contemporary British novel. She is the author of Modernism and Magic: Experiments with Spiritualism, Theosophy and the Occult (EUP, 2013).

Table of Contents:
General Introduction; Introduction to Volume 2; Chronology of the Life and Major Works of Andrew Lang; A Note on the Text; Acknowledgements; 1. Critics and Criticism; 2. Realism, Romance and the Reading Public; 3. On Writers and Writing; 4. Scotland, History and Biography; 5. The Business and Institutions of Literary Life; Appendix I: Names Frequently Cited by Lang; Explanatory Notes; Index

About the Author :
Andrew Teverson is Dean of Academic Strategy and Professor of Cultural History and Critical Thinking at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London. His recent publications include the edited collection The Fairy Tale World (Routledge Worlds Series, 2019), and a two-volume critical edition of the scholarly writings of Andrew Lang (Edinburgh University Press 2015, with Alexandra Warwick and Leigh Wilson). Currently he is editing a volume for The Bloomsbury Cultural History of Fairy Tale on Fairy Tale in the Modern Age, due for publication in 2021. Previous publications include Fairy Tale (Routledge, New Critical Idiom, 2013) and Postcolonial Spaces: The Politics of Place in Contemporary Culture (2011, Palgrave, edited with Sara Upstone). Alexandra Warwick is Professor of English Studies and Head of the Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster. Her research is on Victorian culture, in particular the fin de siècle. Leigh Wilson is Reader in Modern Literature in the Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster. Her research focuses on modernism, on the place of supernatural and occult beliefs and practices in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and on the contemporary British novel. She is the author of Modernism and Magic: Experiments with Spiritualism, Theosophy and the Occult (EUP, 2013).

Review :
A superb scholarly resource for folklorists, in which Lang's role in the development of folkloristics from the second half of the nineteenth century receives critical appraisal. Excellent contextualisation of Lang's folkloric writing amongst his other work on literature, together with helpful appendices and comprehensive explanatory notes. --Shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award 2015