Full Description
A careful selection from thousands of short fictions, this is the first anthology of 18th-century British stories in more than 200 years. It includes well-known and frequently studied stories like "Fantomina" and forgotten gems like "The Adventures of Ambrose Gwinett," famous writers from Defoe and Swift to Henry Fielding and Robert Burns, as well as authors still in need of recognition, such as Thomas Gordon and Leonard McNally. The text of the stories is accompanied by 439 explanatory notes. Each story is introduced by a biographical outline, a brief editorial history of the text, and suggestions for further reading. A 32-page chronology covering both the short fiction and the events of the century is placed at the end of the volume.
Contents
Introduction; Note on the Texts; The Rise and Fall of Madam Coming-Sir / Ned Ward; The Apparition of Mrs Veal / Daniel Defoe; The Civil Husband / Richard Steele; Story of Samuel Slender / Delarivier Manley; The Great Newsmonger / Joseph Addison; Adventures of a Shilling / Joseph Addison; Inkle and Yarico / Richard Steele; In Search of the Philosopher's Stone / Joseph Addison; A Country Entertainment / Thomas Gordon; Good Men / Daniel Defoe; The Wonder of All the Wonders, that Ever the World Wonder'd at / Jonathan Swift; Fantomina / Eliza Haywood; A "Novel" / Matthew Concanen; Foul Weather / Erasmus Philips; Friendship in Death / Elizabeth Singer Rowe; Inconstancy and Fickleness of Man / Thomas Gordon; A Letter from Mrs. Jane Jones / C.E.; Fashionable Education / Thomas Gordon; The Reclamation of Dorimon / Eliza Haywood; The Female Husband / Henry Fielding; History of Zosima / Samuel Johnon; A Very Curious Petrifaction / Christopher Smart; The Revolutions of a Garret / Samuel Johnson; Story of Opsinous / John Hawkesworth; The Story of Mrs. Wilson / Edward Moore; Sir Josiah Pumpkin's Courage / John Boyle, Earl of Cork; Supper at Vauxhall / George Colman the Elder and Bonnell Thornton; Journal of a Fellow from College / Thomas Warton; Marvel's Journey / Samuel Johnson; A City Night-Piece / Oliver Goldsmith; The Disabled Soldier / Oliver Goldsmith; The Man of Spirit / Alexander Kellet; Goody Two-Shoes / Anonymous; The Adventures of Ambrose Gwinett / Isaac Bickerstaff; Tony Selwood / Thomas Chatterton; Sir Bertrand. A Fragment / John Aikin; A Country Gentleman / George Colman the Elder; An Affecting Instance of the Effects of Love / Elizabeth Griffith; Louisa Venoni / Henry Mackenzie; Fanny, or, The Fair Foundling of St. George's Fields / Leonard McNally; The King and His Three Daughters / Horace Walpole; A Letter from John Truman / Alexander Fraser Tytler; Agnes Felton / Nathan Drake; Three Witch Stories / Robert Burns; Melville and Serena / Mary Hays; Tarlton / Maria Edgeworth; Betty Brown, the St. Giles's Orange Girl / Hannah More; Chronology of Events
