University of Michigan Press, 2019 eISBN: 978-0-472-12526-5 | Cloth: 978-0-472-13138-9 Library of Congress Classification PR4517 Dewey Decimal Classification 823.8
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
When novelist Dinah Craik (1826–87) died, expressions of grief came from Lord Alfred Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning, T.H. Huxley, and James Russell Lowell, among others, and even Queen Victoria picked up her pen to offer her consolation to the widower. Despite Craik’s enormous popularity throughout a literary career that spanned forty years, she is now all but forgotten. Yet, in an otherwise respectable life bookended by scandal, this was precisely the way that she wanted it.
Victorian Bestseller is the first book to relate the story of Dinah Craik’s remarkable life. Combining extensive archival work with theoretical work in disability studies and the professionalization of women’s authorship, Karen Bourrier engagingly traces the contours of this author’s life. Craik, who wrote extensively about disability in her work, was no stranger to it in her personal and professional life, marked by experiences of mental and physical disability, and the ebb and flow of health. Following scholarship in the ethics of care and disability studies, the book posits Craik as an interdependent subject, placing her within a network of writers, publishers, editors and artists, friends, and family members. Victorian Bestseller also traces the conditions in the material history of the book that allowed Victorian women writers’ careers to flourish. In doing so, the biography connects corporeality, gender, and the material history of the book to the professionalization of Victorian women’s authorship.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Karen Bourrier is Associate Professor of English at the University of Calgary.
REVIEWS
“A readable and riveting literary and cultural biography that documents Craik’s embeddedness in personal, professional, and literary relationships. The book fills a gap in literary studies while also exploring new questions for Victorian disability studies. A meaningful scholarly work and a frankly enthralling read.”
—Martha Stoddard Holmes, California State University, San Marcos
— -
“An invaluable record of a fascinating life, and a real tour-de-force of both research and organization. Bourrier has synthesized an impressive amount of primary research: manuscript diaries, letters, photographs, even genealogical information. This book will make it possible to give Craik the scholarly attention she has long deserved.”
—Talia C. Schaffer, Graduate Center, City University of New York
— -
"Bourrier’s fascinating biography of Dinah Craik convincingly casts the neglected author as the quintessential woman writer of her era. Bourrier is the first to fully recount the story of Craik’s life... This abundance of primary source material allows Bourrier to bring Craik to life with a brilliant specificity..." - Jennifer Phegley, Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies
— Jennifer Phegley, Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies
"Scholars of women writers, the Victorian era, and the material history of the book, in particular, will appreciate Bourrier’s detailed research into the life of one of the Victorian period’s most popular authors."
-Victorian Periodicals Review
— Taya Sazama, Victorian Periodicals Review
"Its distinctive contribution to disability history is just one of this book’s many strengths. From its rich details about Craik’s embodied experience as a woman writer to the detailed portrait it paints of literary life and sociability in Victorian Britain, Victorian Bestseller offers much to different audiences, and it does so in an elegant, accessible style that we can all appreciate."
—Victorian Studies
— Jason Farr, Victorian Studies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Parents and Childhood, 1826 to 1839
2. In Her Teens, 1840 to 1845
3. Papers for the People, 1845 to 1849
4. Early Novels, 1850 to 1854
5. The Author of John Halifax, Gentleman, 1855 to 1858
6. The Family Magazine, 1859 to 1863
7. Two Scottish Men, 1861 to 1868
8. Annus Mirabilis, 1869
9. Motherhood, 1870 to 1879
10. Travel and Translation, 1867 to 1884
11. Later Years, 1884 to 1887
Epilogue: Life and Afterlife
Chronology
Manuscripts and Archival Collections
Notes
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Michigan Press, 2019 eISBN: 978-0-472-12526-5 Cloth: 978-0-472-13138-9
When novelist Dinah Craik (1826–87) died, expressions of grief came from Lord Alfred Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning, T.H. Huxley, and James Russell Lowell, among others, and even Queen Victoria picked up her pen to offer her consolation to the widower. Despite Craik’s enormous popularity throughout a literary career that spanned forty years, she is now all but forgotten. Yet, in an otherwise respectable life bookended by scandal, this was precisely the way that she wanted it.
Victorian Bestseller is the first book to relate the story of Dinah Craik’s remarkable life. Combining extensive archival work with theoretical work in disability studies and the professionalization of women’s authorship, Karen Bourrier engagingly traces the contours of this author’s life. Craik, who wrote extensively about disability in her work, was no stranger to it in her personal and professional life, marked by experiences of mental and physical disability, and the ebb and flow of health. Following scholarship in the ethics of care and disability studies, the book posits Craik as an interdependent subject, placing her within a network of writers, publishers, editors and artists, friends, and family members. Victorian Bestseller also traces the conditions in the material history of the book that allowed Victorian women writers’ careers to flourish. In doing so, the biography connects corporeality, gender, and the material history of the book to the professionalization of Victorian women’s authorship.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Karen Bourrier is Associate Professor of English at the University of Calgary.
REVIEWS
“A readable and riveting literary and cultural biography that documents Craik’s embeddedness in personal, professional, and literary relationships. The book fills a gap in literary studies while also exploring new questions for Victorian disability studies. A meaningful scholarly work and a frankly enthralling read.”
—Martha Stoddard Holmes, California State University, San Marcos
— -
“An invaluable record of a fascinating life, and a real tour-de-force of both research and organization. Bourrier has synthesized an impressive amount of primary research: manuscript diaries, letters, photographs, even genealogical information. This book will make it possible to give Craik the scholarly attention she has long deserved.”
—Talia C. Schaffer, Graduate Center, City University of New York
— -
"Bourrier’s fascinating biography of Dinah Craik convincingly casts the neglected author as the quintessential woman writer of her era. Bourrier is the first to fully recount the story of Craik’s life... This abundance of primary source material allows Bourrier to bring Craik to life with a brilliant specificity..." - Jennifer Phegley, Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies
— Jennifer Phegley, Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies
"Scholars of women writers, the Victorian era, and the material history of the book, in particular, will appreciate Bourrier’s detailed research into the life of one of the Victorian period’s most popular authors."
-Victorian Periodicals Review
— Taya Sazama, Victorian Periodicals Review
"Its distinctive contribution to disability history is just one of this book’s many strengths. From its rich details about Craik’s embodied experience as a woman writer to the detailed portrait it paints of literary life and sociability in Victorian Britain, Victorian Bestseller offers much to different audiences, and it does so in an elegant, accessible style that we can all appreciate."
—Victorian Studies
— Jason Farr, Victorian Studies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Parents and Childhood, 1826 to 1839
2. In Her Teens, 1840 to 1845
3. Papers for the People, 1845 to 1849
4. Early Novels, 1850 to 1854
5. The Author of John Halifax, Gentleman, 1855 to 1858
6. The Family Magazine, 1859 to 1863
7. Two Scottish Men, 1861 to 1868
8. Annus Mirabilis, 1869
9. Motherhood, 1870 to 1879
10. Travel and Translation, 1867 to 1884
11. Later Years, 1884 to 1887
Epilogue: Life and Afterlife
Chronology
Manuscripts and Archival Collections
Notes
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE