Series: Norton Critical Editions

The text is unabridged, with original spelling and extensive, easy-to-use marginal glosses and footnotes. No other edition accurately represents the actual (and likely authorial) divisions of the text as attested to by its two surviving witnesses—Caxton’s 1485 print and, especially, the famous Winchester Manuscript. The Winchester Manuscript is now generally agreed to be the more authentic of the two earlier...

The tales—116 in all—are thematically grouped. Each grouping is introduced and annotated by Jack Zipes, the genre's reigning expert. Twenty illustrations accompany the texts. Criticism includes seven important assessments of different aspects of the fairy tale tradition, written by W. G. Waters, Benedetto Croce, Lewis Seifert, Patricia Hannon, Harry Velten, Siegfried Neumann, and Jack Zipes. Brief biographies of the storytellers...

Carefully edited for the undergraduate reader, this Norton Critical Edition includes an informed introduction, focusing on Julian's theology and preparing students to understand the complex, controversial themes of the text, particularly Julian's solution to the problem of evil in Revelation XIII and XIV. Paragraph divisions have been organised to emphasise the thematic units of each chapter, and the sentences have...

This Norton Critical Edition of Antony and Cleopatra is based on the First Folio (1623), the only authoritative text of the play. The edition includes a preface, detailed explanatory annotations, two maps, and visuals ranging from a silver tetradrachm (34 B.C.E.) to an Egyptian Queen Barbie. Sources, Analogues, and Contexts, a rich selection of historical and literary writing, gives readers...

The text is that of the 1813 first edition, accompanied by revised and expanded explanatory annotations. This edition also includes biographical portraits of Austen by members of her family and, new to the fourth edition, those by Jon Spence (Becoming Jane Austen) and Paula Byrne (The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things). Also included are fifteen critical essays,...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The 1826 Henry Colburn edition of the novel, the only one approved by Mary Shelley. Introduction and explanatory footnotes by Chris Washington. A rich selection of contextual documents—twenty-six in all—pertaining to The Last Man's background and sources, reception and impact, other related works by Shelley, and other "Last Man" texts. Fourteen carefully chosen critical assessments...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The First Folio (1623) text of Twelfth Night, with annotations and marginal glosses. Natasha Korda's expert introduction and list of textual edits made to the Folio text for this edition. "Intertexts," a rich selection of ancient and Renaissance works in conversation with Twelfth Night's themes of disguised identity, gender fluidity, and fictive letter-writing. Nine illustrations,...

Winner of the 2016 Northern California Book Award for Translation of Poetry. Honourable Mention for the 2015 Modern Language Association's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Translation of a Literary Work. Marie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and who lived in England during the twelfth century. Prominent among the earliest poets writing in...

Byron's Poetry and Prose includes "Criticism", which is chronologically keyed to Byron's poetry and features both classic and recent examinations of Byron's writing and life. It includes assessments by Anne Barton, Donald H. Reiman, Jane Stabler, Jerome J. McGann, Susan J. Wolfson, and James Chandler. The edition also contains a Biographical Register, Chronology, Selected Bibliography, and an Index of Poem...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The 1925 first American edition text of the novel. A full introduction, a note on the text, and explanatory annotations by David J. Alworth. An unusually rich selection of contextual materials, including Fitzgerald's sources for his greatest novel, excerpts from his ledger and notebooks, three of his related short stories, twenty-two carefully chosen letters concerning...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The 1890 (Lippincott's Magazine) version and the 1891 (book) version of the novel. Under the editorial guidance of Wilde scholar Michael Patrick Gillespie, students have the opportunity to comparatively read and analyse both texts of this controversial novel. Editorial matter by Michael Patrick Gillespie. "Backgrounds" and "Reviews and Reactions" sections that allow readers to gauge...

Yeats’s Poetry, Drama, and Prose brings together a comprehensive collection of essays that provide a deep exploration into the works of William Butler Yeats. This compilation is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand the layers and complexities of Yeats's contributions to literature. Criticism in this collection includes twenty-four interpretive essays by notable authors such as T. S. Eliot,...

This new Norton Critical Edition recounts the 1527–36 expedition of Cabeza de Vaca, the first Spanish explorer to cross North America. Published in 1542 to an astonished and captivated public, Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition tells the unforgettable story of a sixteenth-century soldier turned explorer who, along with three other survivors of a shipwreck, makes his way across an unknown...

This edition presents Parts I and II complete. Cyrus Hamlin provides essential supporting material for this difficult text, and his Interpretive Notes have been expanded and reset in larger, easy-to-read type. Faust also features "Comments by Contemporaries," which includes short pieces by Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Carlyle, and Wilhelm von Humboldt. "Modern Criticism"—comprised of ten essays newly added...

The editor's lucid introduction, marginal glosses, and explanatory annotations make Troilus and Criseyde easily accessible to students with no prior knowledge of Chaucer or Middle English. Also included is Robert Henryson's Testament of Cresseid, the poignant "sequel" to Troilus and Criseyde from fifteenth-century Scotland. Criticism includes ten essays by a diverse group of distinguished Chaucerians, among them C. S. Lewis,...

In addition to a broad selection of the poems, the volume includes over 100 images (16 in colour), emphasising the centrality of pictorial representations to Blake's verse. Biographical context is provided through dozens of excerpts from Blake's notebook, letters, marginalia, and other writings. Criticism offers twenty wide-ranging commentaries by writers from Blake's contemporaries to present-day critics, among them Samuel Taylor...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: Sheila Murnaghan's new translation of the great Greek tragedy of betrayal, revenge, and murder, set in Corinth in the fifth-century B.C.E. A full introduction and explanatory annotations by Sheila Murnaghan. Ancient perspectives on the unforgettable plot from Xenophon, Apollonius of Rhodes, and Seneca. Seminal essays on Medea by P. E. Easterling, Helene P. Foley, and...

Marie Borroff's acclaimed verse translation, marginal glosses, and explanatory footnotes. Laura L. Howes's full introduction along with Borroff's seminal essay, "The Metrical Forms," as well as her "Translator's Note." For comparative study and classroom discussion, two French tales of Sir Gawain, four selections from the original Middle English poem, and a passage from the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Nine critical essays...

This Norton Critical Edition also includes: A preface, full introduction, and appendix ("On Tragic and Epic Performance") by Michelle Zerba and David Gorman. Ancient Sources, providing readers with the opportunity to consider the epic, dramatic, philosophical, and rhetorical texts that influenced the Poetics, including writings by Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Gorgias, Plato, among others. Several modern interpretations by Reuben A. Brower,...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The American first edition text, plus the reinstated "raft passage" from Life on the Mississippi (1883), complete with all original illustrations by Edward Windsor Kemble and, for the raft passage, John Harley. Editorial matter by Thomas Cooley. A rich selection of contextual and source documents centred on the novel's historical background, language, composition, and reception,...

The English rendition of the title of this novel has been problematic since the book's publication in 1862. In his prefatory note to the Second Edition, Katz explains his decision to return to the original title, the one preferred by the author himself: Ottsy i deti, literally Fathers and Children. The novel is accompanied by a rich selection of Turgenev's...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: Wayne A. Rebhorn's thorough and thought-provoking introduction to Machiavelli, his world, and his famous political treatise. An accurate and highly readable translation, detailed explanatory annotations, and a map of North Central Italy in Machiavelli's time. A judicious selection of Machiavelli's other writings that inform his immense influence as a diplomat, democrat, and correspondent. Twelve interpretative...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The New York Edition text of the novel—the one that had James's final authority—newly and fully annotated by Jonathan Warren. A full introduction, compositional history, and textual notes by Jonathan Warren. Revised and expanded contextual materials, topically organized to promote classroom discussion: "James, the Ghost Story, and the Supernatural," "James on The Turn of the...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The first British edition of the novel, published in 1886 by Longmans, Green, and Co., the only edition set directly from Stevenson's manuscript and for which he read and corrected proofs. Deborah Lutz's thorough introduction and detailed explanatory footnotes to the novel. Seven illustrations. A rich and relevant selection of background materials centered on the...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The first edition of the novel, published by Archibald Constable in London in 1897, chosen by the editors to provide readers, insofar as possible, with a more historically authentic reading experience than has been generally available. Arcane words and usages are footnoted at first appearance. Editorial matter by John Edgar Browning and David J. Skal....

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, these long-awaited volumes bring together succinct introductions to each biblical book, detailed explanatory annotations, and a wealth of contextual and critical materials. Archaic words are explained, textual problems are lucidly discussed, and stylistic features of the original texts are highlighted. Judicious and economical, the introductions and annotations to the...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: A newly edited text based on the first English book edition (1902), the last version to which Conrad is known to have actively contributed. Textual History and Editing Principles provides an overview of the textual controversies and ambiguities perpetually surrounding Heart of Darkness. Background and source materials on colonialism and the Congo, nineteenth-century attitudes toward...

Intrigued by the possibilities of time travel as a student and inspired as a journalist by the great scientific advances of the Victorian Age, Wells drew on his own scientific publications—on evolution, degeneration, species extinction, geologic time, and biology—in writing The Time Machine. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the first London edition of the novel. It is accompanied...

This Norton Critical Edition looks at the full range of opinion and interpretation of this major play from its origins to the present day, from its "genius" (William Hazlitt) to its being a "hateful work, although Shakespearean throughout" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), and beyond. The Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1623 First Folio text, the only authoritative edition of...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The first edition of the novel (1859) accompanied by twenty-seven illustrations, from original images by Halbot Knight Browne (“Phiz”) to cartoons from The Simpsons. An expansive introduction and detailed explanatory annotations by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst. Thematically organised contextual materials designed to promote classroom discussion. Topics include “Dickens on France and the French,” “Revolution and Aftermath,” “Living...

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The First Folio (1623) text of Macbeth, with updated and expanded footnotes and introductory materials by Robert S. Miola. Illustrations from a wide range of adaptations, including modern stage and film productions. "The Actors' Gallery," collecting reflections from actors and actresses about their roles in major productions of Macbeth from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries....

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The New York Edition of the novel, accompanied by Michael Gorra's introduction and explanatory footnotes. Background and contextual materials centering on James as a writer, The Portrait of a Lady in revision, and reviews of the novel by James's contemporaries. Seven important critical essays, chosen for their accessibility. A Chronology and Suggestions for Further Reading....

The texts are extensively glossed and are accompanied by individual introductions and explanatory annotations. A lightly regularised system of spellings has been adopted. No prior knowledge of Chaucer is assumed. Dream Visions and Other Poems connects the poems to their classical and medieval foundations and includes works by Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Boethius, Dante, and Boccaccio, among others. From the wealth...

Each text has been carefully edited and annotated for student readers. As his writing reflects, Melville was extraordinarily well read. Contexts collects important sources for each novel, including writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Amasa Delano, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Criticism includes twenty-eight essays about the novels sure to promote classroom discussion. Contributors include Leo Marx, Elizabeth Hardwick, Frederick Busch, Robert Lowell,...

This edition reprints the first published version from 1893. Misprints and errors have been corrected and are identified in "A Note on the Text." Footnotes indicate changes in wording that Crane made for the 1896 edition and explain slang expressions and customs of the day. Maps of the novel's New York City locales are also provided. "Backgrounds and Sources" includes...

The text is accompanied by an introduction, textual annotations by the editor, and a map of Paris. Père Goriot has had a profound impact on literature, as illustrated in "Responses: Contemporaries and Other Novelists," highlighting Balzac's immense influence on other writers such as Charles Baudelaire, Hippolyte Taine, Émile Zola, and Marcel Proust. "Twentieth-Century Criticism" presents a superb selection of critical...

Moll Flanders is one of the best-selling novels of all time. This Norton Critical Edition is again based on the first edition text (1722), the only text known to be Defoe's own. It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and the editor’s essay outlining the novel's textual history. Contexts collects related documents on criminal transport, contemporary accounts of lives of...

Inspiring, provocative, prophetic, and enigmatic, Utopia is the literary masterpiece of a visionary statesman and one of the most influential books of the modern world. Based on Thomas More's penetrating analysis of the folly and tragedy of the politics of his time and all times, Utopia (1516) is a seedbed of alternative political institutions and a perennially challenging exploration of...

As a unique feature, the Third Edition includes generous excerpts from Thoreau's journal, reprinted by special arrangements with Princeton University Press from the definitive edition of his writings. Spanning the years 1845-54, these selections vividly display Thoreau's intensive exploration of his local landscape; the fusion of literary and natural history field work that informs Walden, "Walking," and "Wild Apples"; and...

The Bhagavad Gita, the "Song of the Lord," is an ancient Hindu scripture about virtue presented as a dialogue between Krishna, an incarnation of God, and the warrior Arjuna on the eve of a great battle over succession to the throne. This new verse translation of the classic Sanskrit text combines the skills of leading Hinduist Gavin Flood with the...

The texts reprinted in this new Norton Critical Edition have been scrupulously edited and are from the Westmoreland manuscript where possible, collated against the most important families of Donne manuscripts—the Cambridge Belam, the Dublin Trinity, and the O'Flahertie—and compared with all seven seventeenth-century printed editions of the poems as well as all major twentieth-century editions. John Donne's Poetry is divided...

Kafka's Selected Stories is presented in this Norton Critical Edition with new translations by leading Kafka scholar and translator Stanley Corngold. The edition comprises thirty stories, each accompanied by detailed annotations for enhanced understanding. "Backgrounds and Contexts" offers readers a glimpse into Kafka's creative process through extracts from his letters, diaries, and conversations, providing invaluable insight into his mind and...

Edmund Spenser's Poetry is now available in a revised and updated Norton Critical Edition. This revised and enlarged Fourth Edition expands and improves on the strengths of the previous three editions. All selections are based on early and established texts, fully glossed, and carefully annotated. An Editor's Note follows each section. This new edition addresses the shifts in scholarly and...