The Nigger of the "Narcissus"

In the nineteenth century Uncle Tom's Cabin sold more copies than any book in the world except the Bible. It was quickly translated into thirty-seven languages and has never gone out of print. The book had far-reaching impact, and deeply affected the national conscience of antebellum America. The Norton Critical Edition text is that of the 1852 book edition, published in two volumes by John P...

Fairy tales shape our cultures and enrich our imaginations; their narrative stability and cultural durability are incontestable. This Norton Critical Edition collects forty-four fairy tales, from the fifth century to the present. The Classic Fairy Tales focuses on six tale types: "Little Red Riding Hood," "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White," "Cinderella," "Bluebeard," and "Hansel and Gretel," ...

Book DescriptionThis Norton Critical Edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's most widely read novel appears during the bicentennial anniversary year of his birth. The text of The Scarlet Letter is based on the 1850 third edition, the first set in stereotype plates and the basis of subsequent printings in Hawthorne's lifetime. An invaluable selection of contextual material includes five Hawthor...

The Second Edition of this Norton Critical Edition of Fielding’s great novel reprints the definitive fourth edition text (1749, dated 1750), "Carefully revis’d and corrected/By Henry Fielding, Esq;", the last in his lifetime. The novel is fully annotated for undergraduate readers and is accompanied by a Textual Appendix and a map depicting Tom’s route to London. As in the previous edition, "Co...

This Norton Critical Edition includes thirty-five of Katherine Mansfield’s short stories with explanatory annotations. With the exception of the first four stories, all were written within a period of ten years. These stories, and the letters following, reflect the urgency of a writer who knew her time was limited. All but four of the texts of the stories reprinted here are versions that Mansfi...

This Norton Critical Edition includes the most admired of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Each is presented in the original language, with normalized spelling and substantial annotations for modern readers. Among the new added to the Second Edition are the much-requested "Merchant’s Tale" and the "Tale of Sir Thopas." "Sources and Backgrounds" are included for the General Prologue and for most of t...

Today the Book remains the most reliable and illuminating account of Renaissance court life and of what it took to be the "Perfect Courtier" and "Court Lady." The Singleton translation the most acclaimed and accurate available is accompanied by annotations. "Criticism" features ten essays on The Book of the Courtier, which represent the best interpretations from the United States, Italy, and Engla...

This Second Edition of Tennyson's In Memoriam represents a significant revision of its predecessor, taking into account major changes in the study of Tennyson's works in recent years. The editor has written a substantial Introduction that provides students with a historical and contextual overview, from In Memoriam'?, genesis to its publication and reception. The text of the poem is...

This Norton Critical Edition reprints the authoritative Wesleyan text of Joseph Andrews, edited by Martin Battestin. An accurate text of Shamela (Fielding’s satire of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, the most popular epistolary novel of the eighteenth century) as well as An Essay on the Knowledge of the Characters of Men, selections from The Champion, and the Preface to The Adventures of David Simple ...

Contexts focuses on the novel's sources and composition. Included are newspaper accounts of a San Francisco murder; a description of Norris' Polk Street neighborhood, which figures prominently in McTeague; an examination of the relationship between the novel and naturalism; and a discussion of the book's genesis, from its origin as a Harvard assignment to Norris's revision of i...