This (Last Three) Weeks' Acquisitions
- Orestes Brownson, Like a Roaring Lion: A Tale of Demonic Possession and Redemption, ed. Gerald J. Russello (Cluny, 2017). Reprint of Brownson's 1854 novel The Spirit-Rapper, about the mid-Victorian obsession with spiritualism. (Amazon)
- F. J. Gould, The Agnostic Island and W. H. Mallock, The Individualist (Garland, 1976). "Novels of Faith and Doubt" reprint featuring two satires, one on (shocker) agnosticism and another on late-Victorian social activism. (eBay)
- Emma Jane Worboise Guyton, The Wife's Trials, Married Life, Husbands and Wives (Garland, 1976). Another "Novels of Faith and Doubt" reprint, this time an omnibus edition of three novels by the Congregationalist novelist and editor. (eBay)
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (Penguin, 2010). Yes, there really was a Penguin reprint of this pioneering crime novel, now best remembered for "It was a dark and stormy night..." (Amazon [secondhand])
- Peter Hawes, Tasman's Lay (Hazard, 1995). A parodic historical novel about Abel Janszoon Tasman. (Amazon [secondhand])
- Tom Winnifrith and Edward Chitham, Charlotte and Emily Bronte: Literary Lives (St. Martin's, 1989). A concise joint biography focusing on how the sisters developed as writers. (Amazon [secondhand])
- Kirsty Milne, At Vanity Fair: From Bunyan to Thackeray (Cambridge, 2015). Looks at Bunyan's reception and transformation via one of the most famous allegorical spaces in The Pilgrim's Progress. (Amazon [secondhand])
- George K. Behlmer, Risky Shores: Savagery and Colonialism in the Western Pacific (Stanford, 2018). A history of British discourses on cannibalism and empire, beginning with James Cook. (Amazon)
- Simon Gunn, The Public Culture of the Victorian Middle Class: Ritual and Authority in the English Industrial City 1840-1914 (Cambridge, 2000). Examines the uses of ritual across multiple contexts (e.g., religion, parades, etc.) to shape how the middle classes understood their position in cities like Manchester. (eBay)
- Kevin Ward and Brian Stanley, eds., The Church Mission Society and World Christianity, 1799-1999 (Eerdmans, 2000). Essays on encounters between the Anglican Church Missionary Society and indigenous peoples across the British empire. (Amazon [secondhand])
- Phyllis Mack, Heart Religion in the British Enlightenment: Gender and Emotion in Early Methodism (Cambridge, 2008). Historicizes the role of strong feeling in Methodist discourse, in such arenas as conversion, sexual desire, etc. (Amazon [secondhand])