Full Description
Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond—among the most compelling and thought-provoking of Margaret Oliphant's works of short fiction—tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Lycett-Landon, "two middle-aged people in the fullness of life and prosperity," and of what becomes of their marriage when Mr. Lycett-Landon becomes uncommunicative while on an extended business trip.
In addition to an illuminating introduction, this edition includes a variety of background materials that help to set this extraordinary work in its literary and historical context.
Contents
The Legend of Fair Rosamond
from "Fair Rosamond," Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765)
from Mary Russell Mitford, Dramatic Scenes, Sonnets, and Other Poems (1827)
from Pierce Egan, Fair Rosamond, An Historical Romance (1844)
Bigamy Laws
Section 22, Offences against the Person Act (1828)
Section 57, Offences against the Person Act (1861)
Bigamy in Sensation Novels
from Wilkie Collins, The Two Destinies (1876)
from Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Phantom Fortune (1883)
Contemporary Reactions to Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond
from "Magazines for January," "Magazines for February," The Sunday Times (1886)
from "Cornhill Magazine (January, February, March)," The London Quarterly and Holborn Review (1886)
from "Recent Short Stories," The Spectator (1898)
J.M. Barrie on Oliphant and on "Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond"
J.M. Barrie, Introductory Note to The Widow's Tale and Other Stories (1898)
Victorian London and Liverpool
from Isabella Beeton, The Book of Household Management (1861)
from George and Weedon Grossmith, Diary of a Nobody (1888-9)
from Black's Guide to Liverpool and Birkenhead (1871)
Images of Liverpool
