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In London Labour and the London Poor (1861) Henry Mayhew wrote, “Of all books, perhaps none has ever had so baneful effect upon the young mind, taste, and principles” as Jack Sheppard. An historical novel based on the exploits of John Sheppard, a thief who was executed in 1724, Jack Sheppard was blamed for inciting…

The Broadview Anthology of British Satire, 1660–1750 provides instructors and students with a thorough introduction to the highpoint of British literary satire. Reflecting current pedagogical practice and scholarship, the anthology presents works by thirty satirists, including eleven women. The contents are expansive: they include canonical, frequently taught texts; less anthologized works by major satirists; and…

Published together for the first time, Eliza Haywood’s Anti-Pamela and Henry Fielding’s An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews are the two most important responses to Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela. Anti-Pamela comments on Richardson’s representations of work, virtue, and gender, while also questioning the generic expectations of the novel that Pamela establishes, and…

In 1754 the British adventurer, compiler, and novelist Edward Kimber published The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Anderson. Rooted in a tale Kimber heard while exploring the Atlantic seaboard, Mr. Anderson is the novelist’s transatlantic tale of slavery, Indian relations, and frontier life. Having been kidnapped in England, transported across the Middle…

The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman (1778) tells the story of a fictional midshipman abandoned in Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand, after a battle with Maori that claims the lives of ten of his shipmates. Inspired by an actual event on Captain Cook’s second voyage, Bowman’s adventures take him to increasingly sophisticated cultures—hunter/ gatherer, pastoral/nomadic, agricultural,…

This classic novel, first published in 1860, tells the story of Maggie Tulliver. Intelligent and headstrong but trapped by the conventions of family tradition and rural life, Maggie is one of the great heroines of Victorian literature. Along with Maggie’s story, the novel also tells a companion tale of the social pressures that restrict the…

The Basset Table follows the fortunes of Lady Reveller, who runs a table where her friends play the card game basset, and her struggle to avoid marrying Lord Worthy. Meanwhile, Lady Reveller’s cousin, Valeria, spends her time conducting scientific experiments and dissections, but her father intends to marry her off to the bluff sea-captain Hearty.…