Simon Cooke – författare

Though well-known as the author of Trilby and the creator of Svengali, the writer-artist George Du Maurier had many other accomplishments that are less familiar to modern audiences. This collection traces Du Maurier’s role as a participant in the wider cultural life of his time, restoring him to his proper status as a major Victorian figure. Divided into sections, the volume considers Du Maurier as an artist, illustrator and novelist who helped to form some of the key ideas of his time. The contributors place his life and work in the context of his treatment of Judaism and Jewishness; his fascination with urbanization, Victorian science, technology and clairvoyance; his friendships and influences; and his impact on notions of consumerism and taste. As an illustrator, Du Maurier collaborated with Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Gaskell and sensational writers such as M. E. Braddon and the author of The Notting Hill Mystery. These partnerships, along with his reflections on the art of illustration, are considered in detail. Impossible to categorize, Du Maurier was an Anglo-Frenchman with cultural linkages in France, England, and America; a social commentator with an interest in The New Woman; a Punch humourist; and a friend of Henry James, with whom he shared a particular interest in the writing of domesticity and domestic settings. Closing with a consideration of Du Maurier’s after-life, notably the treatment of his work in film, this collection highlights his diverse achievements and makes a case for his enduring significance.

Argues that ‘travellers’ tales of wonder’ are a vital yet unacknowledged presence in contemporary literatureExploring travellers’ tales of wonder in contemporary literature, this study challenges a sensibility of disenchantment with travel. It reassesses travel writing as an aesthetically and ethically innovative form in contemporary international literature, and demonstrates the crucial role of wonder in the travel narratives of writers such as Bruce Chatwin, V.S. Naipaul, and W.G. Sebald. Their ‘travellers’ tales of wonder’ are read as a challenge to the hubris of thinking the world too well known, and an invitation to encounter the world – including its most troubling histories – with a sense of wonder. Key FeaturesReassesses the place of travel writing in literary history to argue that the genre is important as a site of aesthetic innovation and ethical engagement in contemporary literatureDemonstrates the central role of wonder in travel accounts often regarded as narratives of disenchantmentExplores the way travellers’ tales of wonder recover and renew ancient and early modern forms in approaching modern and contemporary issuesOffers new, in-depth readings of the work of three major writers, in each case drawing on as yet unpublished results of archival research

A new perspective on a book that transformed Victorian illustration into a stand-alone art. Edward Moxon's 1857 edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Poems dramatically redefined the relationship between images and words in print. Cooke's study, the first book to address the subject in over 120 years, presents a sweeping analysis of the illustrators and the complex and challenging ways in which they interpreted Tennyson's poetry. This book considers the volume's historical context, examining in detail the roles of publisher, engravers, and binding designer, as well as the material difficulties of printing its fine illustrations, which recreate the effects of painting. Arranged thematically and reproducing all the original images, the chapters present a detailed reappraisal of the original volume and the distinctive culture that produced it.

A detailed study of Victorian supernaturalism in book and magazine illustrations and cartoons Illustrating the Victorian Supernatural explores written and visual texts through which the original Victorian readership encountered and navigated their experience of supernaturalism. Looking across the nineteenth century, Simon Cooke investigates illustrative responses to well-known texts by writers such as Charles Dickens and Henry James while also examining responses to less familiar ghost stories by female authors such as M. E. Braddon and Amelia Edwards. The mix of familiar and unfamiliar carries forward into the selection of artists, both those in the mainstream-John Leech, George Cruikshank, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais-and others whose names are lost to modern readers and whose work deserves to be better known.The study addresses two main questions: how illustration responded to key literary texts and how graphic designs related to contemporary contexts of race, gender, and class and to the workings of the supernatural itself. The first chapter focuses on satirical writings about ghosts and ghostliness and the various ways illustrators depicted that mockery. Chapter 2 traces artistic responses to Dickens’s writing of the supernatural as a mode of psychological investigation. Chapter 3 looks at class and gender and the problematic practice of male artists illustrating female-authored ghost stories. The fourth chapter examines satirical cartoons’ deployment of supernatural imagery to anatomize issues of imperialism and race. Finally, chapter 5 examines how neo-Victorian artists have revisited the classic texts and taken up the themes established by their forebears.

In a reevaluation of that period in Victorian illustration known as 'The Sixties,' a distinguished group of international scholars consider the impact of illustration on the act of reading; its capacity to reflect, construct, critique and challenge its audience's values; its response to older graphic traditions; and its assimilation of foreign influences. While focused on the years 1855 to 1875, the essays take up issues related to the earlier part of the nineteenth century and look forward to subsequent developments in illustration. The contributors examine significant figures such as Ford Madox Brown, Frederick Sandys, John Everett Millais, George John Pinwell, and Hablot Knight Browne in connection with the illustrated magazine, the mid-Victorian gift book, and changing visual responses to the novels of Dickens. Engaging with a number of theories and critical debates, the collection offers a detailed and provocative analysis of the nature of illustration: its production, consumption, and place within the broader contexts of mid-Victorian culture.

In a reevaluation of that period in Victorian illustration known as 'The Sixties,' a distinguished group of international scholars consider the impact of illustration on the act of reading; its capacity to reflect, construct, critique and challenge its audience's values; its response to older graphic traditions; and its assimilation of foreign influences. While focused on the years 1855 to 1875, the essays take up issues related to the earlier part of the nineteenth century and look forward to subsequent developments in illustration. The contributors examine significant figures such as Ford Madox Brown, Frederick Sandys, John Everett Millais, George John Pinwell, and Hablot Knight Browne in connection with the illustrated magazine, the mid-Victorian gift book, and changing visual responses to the novels of Dickens. Engaging with a number of theories and critical debates, the collection offers a detailed and provocative analysis of the nature of illustration: its production, consumption, and place within the broader contexts of mid-Victorian culture.