A new critical edition of Thackeray's first novel
Description
The Thackeray Edition proudly announces two additions to its collection: Catherine and The Luck of Barry Lyndon. The Thackeray Edition is the first full-scale scholarly edition of William Makepeace Thackeray's works to appear in over seventy years, and the only one ever to be based on an examination of manuscripts and relevant printed texts. It is also a concrete attempt to put into practice a theory of scholarly editing that gives new insight into Thackeray's own compositional process.
Written in 1839-40 for Fraser's Magazine, Catherine was Thackeray's first novel. Although originally intended as a spoof of the 1830s Newgate school of criminal romance, it has intrinsic merit of its own for its cynical narrator and roguish heroine, both of whom harbinger similar creations in Vanity Fair eight years later.
Sheldon F. Goldfarb is an independent scholar who received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia.
Edgar F. Harden is Professor of English, Simon Fraser University.
Peter L. Shillingsburg is Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, Lamar University.
Reviews
"Although originally intended as a spoof of the 1930s Newgate school of criminal romance, Catherine has intrinsic merit of its own for its cynical narrator and roguish heroine, both of whom foreshadow similar creations in Vanity Fair eight years later."
- Documentary Editing
"Sheldon F. Goldfarb's excellent edition of Thackeray's first novel, Catherine, recovers the only one of his substantial works never to be reprinted during Thackeray's lifetime. . . . Goldfarb's contextualizing essays and editorial apparatus offer a thorough explanation of the place of Catherine in Thackeray's career and of his process of composition. . . . The textual commentary becomes a detailed and excellent analysis of the sociology of authorship. Catherine, one of seven volumes in the Thackeray Edition Project, lives up to the high standards of thoroughness and accuracy set by the other volumes."
- Judith L. Fisher, Trinity University, Victorian Periodicals Review, Summer 2001