Hubert Crackanthorpe (1870-1896) made a critically significant contribution to the evolution of the modernist short story in Britain. His unexplained death in Paris at the age of 26 cut short a highly promising literary career.
The striking realism of Crackanthorpe's first collection of short stories, Wreckage (1893), followed by the psychologically complex Sentimental Studies and posthumous Last Studies (1896), together with the prose poems of Vignettes (1896), were much admired by Henry James and his contemporaries, Dowson, Johnson and Symons, as the work of a leading, innovative writer of critical Decadence. Indeed his stories combine an unrelenting realism with a conscious aestheticizing of their often troubling, bleak subject matter.
As co-editor of the short-lived periodical, The Albermarle and campaigning literary journalist, Crackanthorpe was a key critical participant in central literary and artistic debates of the early 1890s: 'facts' versus 'effects' in literature; the efficacy of realism/naturalism; questions of taste, 'reticence' and the handling of controversial subject matter.
This fully annotated, critical text comprises the most extensive collection to date of Crackanthorpe's writing. As well as uncollected stories, the volume includes a short story never previously published in book form. This edition also contains a selection of Crackanthorpe's critical writings and a bibliographical survey of his work.
About the Author :
Emanuela Ettorre is Associate Professor of English at the University 'G. d'Annunzio', Chieti-Pescara. William Greenslade is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of the West of England, Bristol.
Review :
'This is an informative, comprehensive, and detailed introduction to Crackanthorpe for those who know little about him. It is an illuminating companion edition for those already familiar with his dark vision of life in the 1890s, which his own life trajectory so much resembled.'
Jad Adams, Volupté, 5.1 (2022), pp. 98-102
'A much-needed edition that successfully presents the range and importance of Crackanthorpe's writing... Selected Writings is an accessible introduction to Crackanthorpe that makes proper consideration of his work alongside others of the 'Tragic Generation' possible. Highly recommended.'
Jessica Gossling, Modern Language Review, 118.4, 2023, pp. 604-06
