The Edwardian era saw a remarkable outpouring of fiction, much of which we don't normally think of as Edwardian. There were major works such as Conrad's
Lord Jim
and
Nostromo
, Samuel Butler's
The Way of All Flesh
, and D. H. Lawrence's
Sons and Lovers
. Children's literature saw such marvelous books as Frances Hodgson Burnett's
The Secret Garden
A Little Princess
, and there were many popular classics as well, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
The Hound of the Baskervilles
and Baroness Orczy's
The Scarlet Pimpernel
.
Now, in
Edwardian Fiction: An Oxford Companion
, readers have an illuminating guide to this remarkable but little known period, covering the literary scene in the years from 1900 to the outbreak of the First World War. Here are over a thousand alphabetically arranged entries, including some 800 biographies of major and minor authors. Profiles range from such eminent literary figures as Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy, Katherine Mansfield, and H.G. Wells, to popular writers such as Marie Corelli, Rider Haggard, and Bram Stoker. The
Companion
also boasts entries on some 250 works of fiction—complete with plot outlines—including such important works as E. M. Forster's
A Room with a View
Howard's End
, Henry James's
The Golden Bowl
, and James Joyce's
Dubliners
, major children's books such as
The Wind in the Willows
and Kipling's
Just So Stories
, and bestselling volumes such as Sax Rohmer's
The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu
and G.K. Chesterton's
The Innocence of Father Brown
. The
also covers novels from other English-speaking countries, such as L.M. Montgomery's
Anne of Green Gables
(Canada) and Miles Franklin's
My Brilliant Career
(Australia).
Ranging from Henry James's
The Ambassadors
to Max Beerbohm's
Zuleika Dobson
, this superb volume captures the books, writers, and preoccupations of a fascinating literary era. It will help readers to reconsider a literary epoch they may have overlooked in the past.