The prolific nineteenth-century writer E. D. E. N. Southworth enjoyed enormous public success in her dayshe published nearly fifty novels during her careerbut that very popularity, combined with her gender, led to her almost complete neglect by the critical establishment before the emergence of academic feminism. Even now, most scholarship on Southworth focuses on her most famous novel, The Hidden Hand. However, this new bookthe first since the 1930s devoted entirely to Southworthshows the depth of her career beyond that publication and reassesses her place in American literature.
Editors Melissa Homestead and Pamela Washington have gathered twelve original essays from both established and emerging scholars that set a new agenda for the study of E. D. E. N. Southworths works. Following an introduction by the editors, these articles are divided into four thematic clusters. The first, Serial Southworth, treats her fiction in periodical publication contexts. Southworths Genres, the second grouping, considers her use of a range of genres beyond the sentimental novel and the domestic novel. In the third part, Intertextual Southworth, the essays present intensive case studies of Southworths engagement with literary traditions such as Greek and Restoration drama and with her contemporaries such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and French novelist George Sand. Southworths focus on social issues and reform figures prominently throughout the volume, but the pieces in the fourth section, Southworth, Marriage, and the Law, present a sustained inquiry into the ways in which marriage law and the status of women in the nineteenth century engaged her literary imagination.
The collection concludes with the first chronological bibliography of Southworths fiction organized by serialization date rather than book publication. For the first time, scholars will be able to trace the publication history of each novel and will be able to access citations for lesser-known and previously unknown works.
With its fresh approach, this volume will be of great value to students and scholars of American literature, womens studies, and popular culture studies.