Susan Morgan – författare

Morgan's book begins with the fact that in a culture where women, both in life and in art, have continually been conceived of as less central to human concerns than men, one of the major periods of fiction should be so rich in novels that locate their centre of consciousness in women. The nineteenth century, the great age of British novels, is also the age of the great heroines, and this book examines why. Its essential argument is that the great march of British heroines in the nineteenth century exists in part because it was through women leads that writers, both male and female, could successfuly dramatize their pervasive concerns about history and community progress. The novels share the historical consciousness that the future must not repeat the past, and basic to that consciousness is the notion that traditional definitions of gender must not also be repeated. To change means to change what we mean by masculine and feminine, male and female. The further question these novels deal with is how rearranging such definitions can also rearrange relations between characters and, both inside and outside fiction, can change the relations between public and private events.

Asking why the 19th-century British novel features heroines, and how and why it features "feminine heroism," Susan Morgan traces the relationship between fictional depictions of gender and Victorian ideas of history and progress. Morgan approaches gender in selected 19th-century British novels as an imaginative category, accessible to authors and characters of either sex. Arguing that conventional definitions of heroism offer a fixed and history-denying perspective on life, the book traces a literary tradition that represents social progress as a process of feminization. The capacities for flexibility, mercy, and self-doubt, conventionally devalued as feminine, can make it possible for characters to enter history. She shows that Austen and Scott offer revolutionary definitions of feminine heroism, and the tradition is elaborated and transformed by Gaskell, Eliot, Meredith, and James (partly through one of his last "heroines," the aging hero of The Ambassadors.) Throughout the study, Morgan considers how gender functions both in individual novels and more extensively as a means of tracing larger patterns and interests, especially those concerned with the redemptive possibilities of a temporal and historical perspective.

If you thought you knew the story of Anna in "The King and I", think again. As this riveting biography shows, the real life of Anna Leonowens was far more fascinating than the beloved story of the Victorian governess who went to work for the King of Siam. To write this definitive account, Susan Morgan traveled around the globe and discovered new information that has eluded researchers for years. Anna was born a poor, mixed-race army brat in India, and what followed is an extraordinary nineteenth-century story of savvy self-invention, wild adventure, and far-reaching influence. At a time when most women stayed at home, Anna Leonowens traveled all over the world, witnessed some of the most fascinating events of the Age of Empire, and became a well-known travel writer, journalist, teacher, and lecturer. She remains the one and only foreigner to have spent significant time inside the royal harem of Siam. She emigrated to the United States, crossed all of Russia on her own just before the revolution, and moved to Canada, where she publicly defended the rights of women and the working class.The book also gives an engrossing account of how and why Anna became an icon of American culture in "The King and I" and its many adaptations.

If you thought you knew the story of Anna in The King and I, think again. As this riveting biography shows, the real life of Anna Leonowens was far more fascinating than the beloved story of the Victorian governess who went to work for the King of Siam. To write this definitive account, Susan Morgan traveled around the globe and discovered new information that has eluded researchers for years. Anna was born a poor, mixed-race army brat in India, and what followed is an extraordinary nineteenth-century story of savvy self-invention, wild adventure, and far-reaching influence. At a time when most women stayed at home, Anna Leonowens traveled all over the world, witnessed some of the most fascinating events of the Age of Empire, and became a well-known travel writer, journalist, teacher, and lecturer. She remains the one and only foreigner to have spent significant time inside the royal harem of Siam. She emigrated to the United States, crossed all of Russia on her own just before the revolution, and moved to Canada, where she publicly defended the rights of women and the working class. The book also gives an engrossing account of how and why Anna became an icon of American culture in The King and I and its many adaptations.

In 1878 a German named Overbeck and an Englishman named Dent travelled to North Borneo (now Sabah), announced to the locals that their rules, the Sultan of Brunei, had sold all trade rights in the region, and left a young man named William Pryor to "establish" the British North Borneo Company there. This is William's wife's account.

From setting foot in Asia in 1849 (or was it 1845?) as Anna Crawford (or was it Anna Edwards?) to waltzing with Yul Brynner in glorious technicolor, Anna Leonowens and her romanticized experiences as the only Westerner behind the walls of Nang Harm (the walled harem of the king of Siam) have had a long, colourful, and often controversial existence. Reproduced here is the original 1873 edition of "The Romance of the Harem" by Anna Leonowens (long out of print) which was the source for a 20th century book "Anna and the King of Siam" known to us all through Rogers and Hammerstein's "The King and I". "Why", asks Susan Morgan in her provocative introduction, "should we read this obscure travel account, with its dubious and often inaccurate or uncheckable facts and its author of shady repute?" For several reasons: first, the narrative speaks in its unique way to three of the most incendiary issues in 19th century England and America - imperialism, slavery and women's rights. Further, "Romance" is the only inside story ever written by a Westerner of life behind harem walls in 19th-century Thailand.Every morning for more than 5 years, Anna Leonowens took her young son by the hand and walked into an isolated community of 9000 women and children. And finally, when accepted as fictionalized history, Anna Leonowens's dramatic stories about some of the women in that harem take a prominent place on the growing shelf of rediscovered 19th century women's travel narratives. This book is an addition to women's studies programs, Asian studies, literature and history courses. It should also fascinate general readers with a taste for exotic cultures and settings.

This invaluable resource guides readers through the process of creating scholarly, publishable prose from the results of quantitative experiments and investigations. It delves into the issues commonly encountered when reporting the results of statistical experiments and investigations, and provides instruction re the representation of these results in text and visual formats. This unique research companion serves as a must-have reference for advanced students doing quantitative research and working with statistics, with the goal of writing up and publishing their findings; it also serves as a useful refresher for experienced researchers.

This invaluable resource guides readers through the process of creating scholarly, publishable prose from the results of quantitative experiments and investigations. It delves into the issues commonly encountered when reporting the results of statistical experiments and investigations, and provides instruction re the representation of these results in text and visual formats. This unique research companion serves as a must-have reference for advanced students doing quantitative research and working with statistics, with the goal of writing up and publishing their findings; it also serves as a useful refresher for experienced researchers.