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The official biography of Charles Dickens (1812-70) was published in 1872-4 by his close friend and literary executor John Forster, and has been reissued in this series. Of the many other memoirs and reminiscences of the great novelist, this book by his favourite daughter Mary (1838-96), known as Mamie, is perhaps the least familiar. Published in 1896, shortly after her death, it gives a loving picture, based on her own memories, of the person whom she held 'in my heart of hearts as a man apart from all other men, as one apart from all other beings'. Mamie, who had taken Dickens's side during the separation from his wife, and acted effectively as his housekeeper at Gad's Hill, had compiled an edition of her father's letters with her aunt Georgina Hogarth, and this second act of piety gives an idyllic - perhaps too idyllic - account of daily life with Dickens.

This collection of literary essays by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) explores the lives and works of nine writers from around the world and across the centuries, including Victor Hugo, Robert Burns, Walt Whitman and Samuel Pepys. Published together in 1882, the studies here had previously appeared in periodicals, chiefly the Cornhill Magazine, and are known for their conversational style and unusual combination of character assessment and scholarly critique. In his preface, Stevenson describes the book as 'the readings of a literary vagrant', emphasising that the essays were inspired by a genuine personal interest in the authors and their works. Over the course of his own career as a writer, Stevenson published in a wide range of literary forms and genres. Today this collection reveals much about the diversity of his influences and tastes, as well as offering an insight into his moral and aesthetic values.

Joseph Spence (1699-1768) was ordained after graduating from Oxford, and having made the acquaintance of Alexander Pope, was helped by him to the professorship of poetry at Oxford, which he held for ten years from 1728. At the same time (and while holding the living of Birchanger in Essex) he began the first of several extended European journeys, accompanying nobility on the Grand Tour. He had published various literary works before his death in 1768, but left a number of manuscripts to be published at the discretion of his executors. They decided to take no action, but these anecdotes of Alexander Pope and his contemporaries came into the possession of a bookseller called Carpenter, who had them edited, and published them, prefaced with a life of Spence, in 1820. This is a fascinating compilation of anecdotes, aphorisms and biographical details about the most famous poet of his age.

The writer Lucy Aikin (1781-1864) was the daughter of the physician and author John Aikin and the niece of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, whose works she edited after Barbauld's death in 1825. Given this literary background, it is not surprising that Lucy should have begun to write: her early works were poems, but she is best known for her two-volume Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth (1818), also reissued in this series. This 1864 work, edited by her niece's husband, contains a memoir of Aikin, a collection of her essays, and letters in which she expresses frequently humorous and often trenchant opinions on the literary and social topics of the day, such as the influence of wider knowledge of the German language on English writing, or the morally elevating effect of the British Museum. It will be appreciated by those interested in early nineteenth-century literature and women's writing.

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65) lost her mother at an early age and was sent to live with her aunt in Knutsford, a country town outside Manchester which is often thought to bear a notable resemblance to the fictional Cranford. In this engaging biography, Esther Alice Chadwick (1862-1929) shows how many historical facts of Gaskell's life influenced her novels and stories - from the character of her home town to the sudden disappearance of her brother in India. Originally published in 1910, this was the first full biography of the author; the revised edition of 1913 is reissued here. It includes additional research, illustrations, and excerpts from Gaskell's letters, which provide a touching glimpse into the life of a writer who often felt herself torn between her intellectual and domestic duties. Still a major source for modern biographies, Chadwick's book remains an authoritative source for scholars and students of English literature.

William Poel (1852-1934), actor, director and author, began his acting career in 1876, deliberately choosing provincial touring in order to learn his craft. After a period as manager of the Royal Victoria Hall and Coffee Tavern (later the Old Vic), he worked as stage manager for the actor-manager Frank Benson. In the 1890s he founded the Elizabethan Stage Society in order to demonstrate his fervent belief that only a return to Elizabethan performance methods would enable a true understanding of Shakespeare's plays. This was to have a profound influence on modern productions, with directors such as Tyrone Guthrie and John Gielgud adopting his ideals rather than his often idiosyncratic practices. Moreover, his long-held wish for a replica of the Globe Theatre has since become a reality. Poel was also a prolific author and this work, first published in 1913, explores his philosophy by bringing together four articles on the staging of Shakespeare.

Highly educated and accustomed to intellectual society, the writer and woman of letters Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821) became a close friend of Samuel Johnson through her first husband, the brewer Henry Thrale. Her second marriage, to the Italian musician Gabriel Mario Piozzi in 1784, estranged her from Johnson, but following his death she published her groundbreaking Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, anticipating Boswell's biography. As well as her letters, poetry, essays, memoirs and travel diaries (several of which are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), she was one of the first women to produce works on philology and history. Originally published in 1833, this highly readable volume of recollections by the writer and translator Edward Mangin (1772-1852) draws on her letters to him and his family (as well as on other memorabilia), extracts from which are quoted extensively in the work.

Ranking among the greatest of all English poets, John Milton (1608-74) was an influential thinker during a particularly volatile period in his nation's history. His supreme masterpiece Paradise Lost forms one of the pillars of English literature. The literary scholar and historian Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh (1861-1922) was educated at University College London and King's College, Cambridge. Following posts at Liverpool and Glasgow, he was appointed Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, where he also served as an adviser to the Clarendon Press. This work, first published in 1900, is based upon lectures he gave the previous year as Clark Lecturer in English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge. Admired by the critic William Empson, it is a penetrating study of the great poet and contains a biographical sketch as well as lucid analyses of Milton's use of language and its significant influence.

Chawton House is famous today as the home of Jane Austen's brother Edward, who was adopted by a wealthy relative, Thomas Knight, and inherited his Hampshire estate. Edward offered the former bailiff's cottage close to the great house to his mother, who lived there with her unmarried daughters Jane and Cassandra. The house is now a study centre and library, for women's writing especially, but when this book was published in 1911 the building was still the Knight family home. Montagu Knight, the grandson of Edward, supplied material from the archives of the manor, while the book was largely written by his cousin William Austen Leigh, the son of Jane's nephew and memorialist. It covers the history of the manor from the Norman Conquest to the death of the second Edward in 1879, and, apart from the Austen connection, is a fascinating illustrated history of a typical English parish.

Isaac Taylor (1787-1865) was known as Isaac Taylor of Stanford Rivers, to distinguish him from his father, Isaac Taylor of Ongar, engraver and dissenting minister. He, his brother Jefferys, and their sisters Ann and Jane, were all writers, and their mother was the well-known 'Mrs Taylor of Ongar', some of whose books are also reissued in this series. The younger Isaac felt drawn to the Church of England, and made a name for himself with studies of the Church Fathers and the classics (he is said to have coined the word 'patristic'). This two-volume collection of writings by three generations of the Taylor family was compiled and published in 1867 by the Isaac Taylor of the next generation. Volume 2 contains essays and verses by the four siblings, their father Isaac, and a cousin, Jemima, of which the most notable is the long short story 'Display' by Jane Taylor.

The editor and forger John Payne Collier (1789-1883) claimed to have discovered a Second Folio of Shakespeare which had been 'corrected' in a mid-seventeenth-century hand. He published this catalogue of the emendations, including his commentary on them, in 1852. Collier then presented the so-called 'Perkins Folio' to the Duke of Devonshire, whose successor allowed it to be loaned in 1859 to the British Museum, where a thorough examination exposed it as a forgery. A storm of controversy followed and three of the key documents in the debate, all published in 1860, are also reissued here: 'An Inquiry into the Genuineness of the Manuscript Corrections in Mr. J. Payne Collier's Annotated Shakspere Folio, 1632' by Nicholas Hamilton (d.1915), assistant keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum; Collier's attempt to refute Hamilton's findings; and 'A Review of the Present State of the Shakespearian Controversy' by Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804-78).

Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825), poet, educator and essayist, is now considered to be one of the most important writers of the early Romantic period. Included in her highly regarded works on literary, political, social, and other intellectual topics is the ambitious poem Eighteen Hundred and Eleven (1812), which condemned Britain's participation in the Napoleonic Wars. She gained recognition for her influential elementary textbooks Lessons for Children (1778-9) and Hymns in Prose for Children (1781), which made her name synonymous with the instruction of infants. Her reputation suffered, however, from attacks by critics of her poetry and politics. This charming biography by Anna Letitia Le Breton (1808-85), her great-niece, was first published in 1874 and seeks to bring Barbauld's name back to public attention and acclaim. It draws on personal recollections, letters, and other family memorabilia in the author's possession.

Born into a musical family as the daughter of Charles Burney, Frances 'Fanny' Burney (1752-1840) opted for a life of letters. Her epistolary novel Evelina generated both sensation and sales upon its appearance early in 1778, and when her identity as the author was soon revealed, it opened the door to intellectual circles frequented by the likes of Samuel Johnson and fellow diarist Hester Thrale. Appearing under her married name of Madame d'Arblay, her witty and candid journals and correspondence, from her breakthrough until her final years, were edited by her niece Charlotte Barrett (1786-1870) and first published in seven volumes between 1842 and 1846. Reissued here is the new edition of 1854, including biographical notes. Detailing the success of her literary debut and the friendships she forged as a result, Volume 1 captures the excitement of the period from 1778 to 1780.

Born into a musical family as the daughter of Charles Burney, Frances 'Fanny' Burney (1752-1840) opted for a life of letters. Her epistolary novel Evelina generated both sensation and sales upon its appearance early in 1778, and when her identity as the author was soon revealed, it opened the door to intellectual circles frequented by the likes of Samuel Johnson and fellow diarist Hester Thrale. Appearing under her married name of Madame d'Arblay, her witty and candid journals and correspondence, from her breakthrough until her final years, were edited by her niece Charlotte Barrett (1786-1870) and first published in seven volumes between 1842 and 1846. Reissued here is the new edition of 1854, including biographical notes. Volume 2 covers the period from the beginning of 1781 to July 1786, during which Cecilia (1782), her second novel, was published.

Born into a musical family as the daughter of Charles Burney, Frances 'Fanny' Burney (1752-1840) opted for a life of letters. Her epistolary novel Evelina generated both sensation and sales upon its appearance early in 1778, and when her identity as the author was soon revealed, it opened the door to intellectual circles frequented by the likes of Samuel Johnson and fellow diarist Hester Thrale. Appearing under her married name of Madame d'Arblay, her witty and candid journals and correspondence, from her breakthrough until her final years, were edited by her niece Charlotte Barrett (1786-1870) and first published in seven volumes between 1842 and 1846. Reissued here is the new edition of 1854, including biographical notes. Volume 3 covers the period from July 1786 to December 1787, during which she reluctantly took up an onerous court appointment to Queen Charlotte.

Born into a musical family as the daughter of Charles Burney, Frances 'Fanny' Burney (1752-1840) opted for a life of letters. Her epistolary novel Evelina generated both sensation and sales upon its appearance early in 1778, and when her identity as the author was soon revealed, it opened the door to intellectual circles frequented by the likes of Samuel Johnson and fellow diarist Hester Thrale. Appearing under her married name of Madame d'Arblay, her witty and candid journals and correspondence, from her breakthrough until her final years, were edited by her niece Charlotte Barrett (1786-1870) and first published in seven volumes between 1842 and 1846. Reissued here is the new edition of 1854, including biographical notes. Volume 4 covers the period from the beginning of 1788 through to the end of February 1789. It features the notable episode in which an unbalanced George III chased Fanny through Kew Gardens.

Born into a musical family as the daughter of Charles Burney, Frances 'Fanny' Burney (1752-1840) opted for a life of letters. Her epistolary novel Evelina generated both sensation and sales upon its appearance early in 1778, and when her identity as the author was soon revealed, it opened the door to intellectual circles frequented by the likes of Samuel Johnson and fellow diarist Hester Thrale. Appearing under her married name of Madame d'Arblay, her witty and candid journals and correspondence, from her breakthrough until her final years, were edited by her niece Charlotte Barrett (1786-1870) and first published in seven volumes between 1842 and 1846. Reissued here is the new edition of 1854, including biographical notes. Volume 5 covers the period from March 1789 through to September 1793, during which she married an emigre officer as the French Revolution shook Europe.

Born into a musical family as the daughter of Charles Burney, Frances 'Fanny' Burney (1752-1840) opted for a life of letters. Her epistolary novel Evelina generated both sensation and sales upon its appearance early in 1778, and when her identity as the author was soon revealed, it opened the door to intellectual circles frequented by the likes of Samuel Johnson and fellow diarist Hester Thrale. Appearing under her married name of Madame d'Arblay, her witty and candid journals and correspondence, from her breakthrough until her final years, were edited by her niece Charlotte Barrett (1786-1870) and first published in seven volumes between 1842 and 1846. Reissued here is the new edition of 1854, including biographical notes. Volume 6 covers the period from September 1793 through to 1812, during which she published Camilla (1796) and, in an episode omitted here, endured a mastectomy without anaesthetic.

Born into a musical family as the daughter of Charles Burney, Frances 'Fanny' Burney (1752-1840) opted for a life of letters. Her epistolary novel Evelina generated both sensation and sales upon its appearance early in 1778, and when her identity as the author was soon revealed, it opened the door to intellectual circles frequented by the likes of Samuel Johnson and fellow diarist Hester Thrale. Appearing under her married name of Madame d'Arblay, her witty and candid journals and correspondence, from her breakthrough until her final years, were edited by her niece Charlotte Barrett (1786-1870) and first published in seven volumes between 1842 and 1846. Reissued here is the new edition of 1854, including biographical notes. Volume 7 covers the period from 1813 until her death, a time of bereavement in which she lost her father, brother, husband and son. Also included is a general index to all the volumes.

Determined not to write a biography about his friend Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) in the usual dry style, Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) instead produced a novel. As a result, some biographical facts are given less emphasis than others, in particular the acrimony which later blighted relations between the two men. But the work is distinguished by its liveliness and by a wealth of vivid detail. Ford describes Conrad's remarkably long-eared horse, his haphazard use of adverbs and their fraught collaboration over their second joint novel, Romance, during which Ford's carefully unexciting style provoked the adventure-loving Conrad to depression. Ford's impressionistic portrayal of Conrad as an elegant, likeable swindler and 'beautiful genius' strikes a far richer chord than a purely historical account. First published in 1924, just after Conrad's death, this work remains a striking example of creative non-fiction, instructive for scholars and students of English literature.

Early in the twentieth century, public interest in Jane Austen (1775-1817) was considerable. Although the popularity of her work had remained modest in her lifetime, she was sufficiently well known by the centenary of her death to have provoked toxic reviews from Henry James and Mark Twain along with the reserved support of E. M. Forster. Previous biographies had been riddled with inaccuracies: she was called 'narrow', was said to have disliked children and animals, and to have led a quiet, almost monastic life. Many of these mistakes could be traced back to the unashamedly idealised biography written by her nephew, but while contrary accounts emerged later in the form of her letters, the old misapprehensions endured. In this neglected addition to Austen literature, first published in 1920, Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh (1838-1922) corrects many of these errors, advocating a closer critical reading of her great aunt's novels.

Upon the restoration of Charles II, theatre burst back into popularity across the stages of England. For the first time since the rise of Cromwell, it was possible to make a living from writing verse, and the theatres attracted poets in their dozens. One of them was the young John Dryden (1631-1700). In this sprightly 1826 biography, reissued here in one volume, Walter Scott (1771-1832) brings Dryden's work, philosophy and historical context vividly to life. He begins with Dryden's literary origins in the Restoration theatre, exploring the flops and then the successes that earned the poet his laurels, and continues with a detailed analysis of his later work, including the unstaged opera The State of Innocence as well as Mac Flecknoe, the cornerstone of Restoration satire. A lively critic, Scott is unafraid to write off Anglo-Saxon poetry, insult grammarians and illuminate Dryden's less admirable qualities.

Written by British American critic Richard Moulton (1849-1924), this influential study of Shakespeare's dramatic technique introduces Moulton's 'prescience' of scientific criticism, an approach to literature that would later develop into modern literary theory. Moulton, who served as professor of English literature at Chicago, stated that his object was to 'claim for criticism a position amongst the inductive sciences, and to sketch in outline a plan for the dramatic side of such a critical science', arguing that Shakespeare's genius lay in his mastery of his dramatic art as much as in his deep knowledge of human nature. Published in 1893, this third edition expands significantly on the material in the first edition (1885) and the second (1888), as Moulton includes analysis of three additional Shakespearean plays, using work that had originally been presented to the New Shakespeare Society of London. Subsequent editions were produced in 1897 and 1906.

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, William John Thoms (1803-85) pursued literary and bibliographical interests and conversed with the likes of Thomas Macaulay and Charles Dickens. Most notably, he coined the term 'folklore' in 1846 and founded the scholarly periodical Notes and Queries in 1849. Having been published separately, these three essays on Shakespeare were brought together in this 1865 work. 'Shakespeare in Germany' (1840) spells out how German drama was influenced by English playwrights and by English actors performing plays in Germany from the late sixteenth century onwards. 'The Folk-Lore of Shakespeare' (1847) considers fairy lore and names, with particular attention paid to the characters of Puck and Queen Mab. In 'Was Shakespeare Ever a Soldier?' (1859), Thoms acknowledges that little is known for sure about Shakespeare's life, but careful scrutiny of the evidence has made him 'morally certain' that the dramatist had seen military service.

American philanthropist Elihu Burritt (1810-79) was involved in and lectured widely on many causes, including the abolition of slavery, temperance, and world peace. Known as the 'learned blacksmith' because of his early training in the trade, he was eventually appointed US consul in Birmingham, England, from 1865 to 1870. In addition to his campaigning, Burritt was a prolific writer, producing books and articles on a range of subjects. In this work, published in 1868, he assembles a collection of his writings published between 1850 and 1855 in a variety of periodicals. This compilation covers a wide range of topics - from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to the 'Anarchy of Governments' - drawing from his experiences in Europe and in the USA. Much of Burritt's writing is devoted to the issue of international relations, and to his desire for a 'Congress of Nations' devoted to ending conflict in Europe.

J. Tyrwhitt Brooks was a pseudonym of the nineteenth-century publisher and journalist, Henry Vizetelly (1820-94). Born in London, Vizetelly was apprenticed to a wood engraver as a young child. He entered the printing business and helped found two successful but short-lived newspapers, the Pictorial Times and the Illustrated Times. His Four Months among the Gold-Finders, published in 1849, was a commercial and critical success on both sides of the Atlantic. It purported to be a genuine diary about the Californian Gold Rush, and was widely accepted as such. However, he admits in his 1893 autobiography, Glances Back Through Seventy Years (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection) that it was an elaborate hoax. The supposed author was a doctor (whose testimony would be considered reliable) who had found and then lost a fortune. The Times reviewed it enthusiastically and at length as a morality tale for its time.

From fables to fairy tales, romances to nursery rhymes, this highly influential 1932 study analyses the evolution of children's literature. Publisher and writer F. J. Harvey Darton (1878-1936) draws upon his family's involvement in children's publishing since the late eighteenth century, his knowledge of medieval literature, and his own extensive collection of children's books to present the first account of English children's literature seen as a continuous whole. Setting children's books in their historical context, the work reflects much about the history of English social life as well as providing an in-depth perspective on the genre - in the author's words 'a chronicle of the English people in their capacity of parents, guardians and educators of children'. A classic and authoritative study for anyone interested in the history of children's literature, Darton's book remains an invaluable source of information on the genre.

Women novelists dominated the market in Victorian times, covering all genres from the mainstream to the Gothic, religious and sensational. Some are now classic household names whilst others, popular in their time, lie neglected on the shelves. This collection of appraisals of female writers by female writers was published in 1897 as a contribution to the celebrations of Queen Victoria as the longest reigning British monarch. The brief is exact: only those whose work was done after the Queen's accession and who were dead would be included. Nonetheless, the range is wide and includes essays on the Brontes, George Eliot and Mrs Gaskell, by Margaret Oliphant, Eliza Lynn Linton and Ada Ellen Bayly respectively, as well as appraisals of Catherine Crowe, Mrs Archer Clive and Mrs Henry Wood (author of East Lynne), by Adeline Sergeant, and the children's authors Charlotte Tucker and Juliana Ewing by Emma Marshall.

Assembled in 1891 by Sir Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), this collection of John Keats' correspondence contains 164 letters written to the poet's family and friends during his short life. Colvin was at various times Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. He had a long-standing interest in Keats and eventually published a biography of the celebrated poet (also reissued in this series) in 1917. Among the letters included here are those written to Keats' publisher John Taylor, his sister Fanny Keats, his close friend Charles Armitage Brown, the artist Benjamin Haydon, writers John Hamilton Reynolds and Leigh Hunt and many others, providing a rich insight into the poet's character. The book also includes an explanatory preface containing background information and brief biographical sketches of Keats' correspondents.

When the Countess of Blessington (1789-1849) met the poet Lord Byron (1788-1824) in Genoa in 1823 she noted that 'the impression of the first few minutes disappointed me'. Despite this precarious start, they struck up a friendship and met nearly every day for two months. Byron had been living in the Italian port city since the previous autumn and Blessington and her family had arrived in April 1823. Her account of their conversations was not published until 1834, a decade after Byron's death. Blessington expresses candid opinions about the poet in this work, writing that Byron 'is a strange melange of good and evil, the predominancy of either depending wholly on the humour he may happen to be in'. Through her frankness, the author - herself a well-known writer who hosted a distinguished literary salon - also reveals much about herself and the literary world she and Byron inhabited.