Julia Briggs – författare

The later years of Elizabeth and the reign of James I were the age of Shakespeare, but the age also of Sidney, Spenser, and Donne, of fellow dramatists Marlowe, Jonson, and Webster, and of the prose writers Nashe, Bacon, and Burton. This book examines the social conditions that produced this uniquely dazzling array of talent, and relates them closely to the literature of the period. Politically, 1580-1625 was a period of comparative stability, but men's lives were constantly threatened by plague, famine, or even casual violence; a sudden population rise added problems of inflation and unemployment. Writers struggling to earn a living needed either to please the court, with its wealthy and influential patrons, or else to score a popular success with London's new theatre-going public. The establishment itself was actively engaged in promoting ideals of order, hierarchy and centralized authority, while religious reformers urged men to heed the promptings of the spirit, and humanist schoolmasters introduced the young to the pagan culture of ancient Rome, its erotic poetry, and its republican sentiments. New ideas were in the air and sceptical, sometimes iconoclastic attitudes were widely expressed: a constant theme in the literature of the age was man's simultaneous greatness and littleness, the dramatic antitheses contained within him and acted out upon what Raleigh called `this stage-play world'. This extensively revised new edition also includes two new chapters which examine the role of women, the family, travellers and `outsiders' within the social and literary contexts of the period. It also contains textual notes and a fully updated bibliography.

The pleasure and excitement of exploring Virginia Woolf’s writings is at the heart of this book by a highly respected Woolf critic and biographer. Julia Briggs reconsiders Woolf’s work - from some of her earliest fictional experiments to her late short story, ‘The Symbol’, and from the most to the least familiar of her novels - from a series of highly imaginative and unexpected angles. Individual essays analyse Woolf’s neglected second novel, Night and Day and investigate her links with other writers (Byron, Shakespeare), her ambivalent attitudes to ‘Englishness’ and to censorship, her fascination with transitional places and moments, with the flow of time (and its relative nature), her concern with visions and revision and with printing and the writing process as a whole. We watch Woolf as she typesets an extraordinarily complex high modernist poem (Hope Mirrlees’s 'Paris'), and as she revises her novels so that their structures become formally - and even numerologically - significant. A final essay examines the differences between Woolf’s texts as they were first published in England and America, and the further changes she occasionally made after publication, changes that her editors have been slow to acknowledge. Julia Briggs brings to these discussions an extensive knowledge of Woolf both as a scholar and as an editor. She records her findings and observations in a lively, graceful and approachable style that will entice readers to delve further and more meaningfully into Woolf’s work. Features* Addresses a wide range of familiar and less familiar texts, including Woolf’s short stories.* Opens up difficult texts in an inviting style.* Covers aspects of Woolf’s work that have been consistently neglected or have never been considered before.

The pleasure and excitement of exploring Virginia Woolf’s writings is at the heart of this book by a highly respected Woolf critic and biographer. Julia Briggs reconsiders Woolf’s work - from some of her earliest fictional experiments to her late short story, ‘The Symbol’, and from the most to the least familiar of her novels - from a series of highly imaginative and unexpected angles. Individual essays analyse Woolf’s neglected second novel, Night and Day and investigate her links with other writers (Byron, Shakespeare), her ambivalent attitudes to ‘Englishness’ and to censorship, her fascination with transitional places and moments, with the flow of time (and its relative nature), her concern with visions and revision and with printing and the writing process as a whole. We watch Woolf as she typesets an extraordinarily complex high modernist poem (Hope Mirrlees’s 'Paris'), and as she revises her novels so that their structures become formally - and even numerologically - significant. A final essay examines the differences between Woolf’s texts as they were first published in England and America, and the further changes she occasionally made after publication, changes that her editors have been slow to acknowledge. Julia Briggs brings to these discussions an extensive knowledge of Woolf both as a scholar and as an editor. She records her findings and observations in a lively, graceful and approachable style that will entice readers to delve further and more meaningfully into Woolf’s work. Features* Addresses a wide range of familiar and less familiar texts, including Woolf’s short stories.* Opens up difficult texts in an inviting style.* Covers aspects of Woolf’s work that have been consistently neglected or have never been considered before.

Edith Nesbit is one of the greatest children's writers of the century. Though known in her day for poems, short stories and romantic novels, she is now remembered as the author of The Railway Children, The Treasure Seekers and many other tales of magic and adventure.Her readers loved to think of her as a reassuringly aunt like figure, but this biography reveals her as a wilful, demanding and adventurous woman - a true Bohemian who broke all society's rules in her search for love.Nesbit has previously been presented as the much-exploited and long- suffering victim of her husband, Hubert Bland, a compulsive womaniser. The truth is more complex: Edith had an intense, if unconsummated, affair with Bernard Shaw, which was followed by a series of love affairs with younger men. At the same time, her closest friend Alice Hoatson moved into her home as a housekeeper, where Alice bore Hubert two children whom Edith brought up as her own. The Blands were founder members of the Fabian Society, and this book records their friendships with figures like the Webbs, Eleanor Marx, Olive Schreiner and H.G. Wells.Edith Nesbit's own writing reflects her dynamic energy, her sense of fun and passionate joie de vivre. Julia Briggs' biography explores with subtlety the complex relationship between her life and her fiction.

The astonishing success of J.K. Rowling and other contemporary children's authors has demonstrated how passionately children can commit to the books they love. But this kind of devotion is not new. This timely volume takes up the challenge of assessing the complex interplay of forces that have created the popularity of children's books both today and in the past. The essays collected here ask about the meanings and values that have been ascribed to the term 'popular'. They consider whether popularity can be imposed, or if it must always emerge from children's preferences. And they investigate how the Harry Potter phenomenon fits into a repeated cycle of success and decline within the publishing industry. Whether examining eighteenth-century chapbooks, fairy tales, science schoolbooks, Victorian adventures, waif novels or school stories, these essays show how historical and publishing contexts are vital in determining which books will succeed and which will fail, which bestsellers will endure and which will fade quickly into obscurity. As they considering the fiction of Angela Brazil, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling, the contributors carefully analyse how authorial talent and cultural contexts combine, in often unpredictable ways, to generate - and sometimes even sustain - literary success.

In A Woman of Passion, Julia Briggs chronicles the life of author Edith Nesbit who is credited with being the first modern writer for children and the creator of the children's adventure story. Nesbit recorded her life with varying degrees of honesty in verse and prose, and while she seldom wrote entirely openly of her own experiences, she seldom wrote convincingly of anything else. In this fascinating read, Julia Briggs attempts to fill in the gaps of Nesbit's autobiographical material, painting an intriguing portrait of the famous author.