Synopses & Reviews
Modern Love and Poems of the English Roadside occupies a distinctive and somewhat notorious place within George Meredithand#8217;s already unique body of work. Modern Love is now best known for the emotionally intense sonnet cycle which Meredithand#8217;s own contemporaries dismissed as scandalously confessional and indiscreet. While individual sonnets from the work have been anthologized, the complete cycle is rarely included, and the original edition has not been reprinted since its first appearance in 1862. This edition restores the original publication and supplements it with a range of accompanying materials that will reintroduce Meredithand#8217;s astonishing collection of poetry to a new generation of readers.
Review
andldquo;One hundred fifty years have passed since George Meredithandrsquo;s extraordinarily bold andlsquo;Modern Loveandrsquo; struck Richard Holt Hutton in the Spectator as nothing less than andlsquo;Modern Lust.andrsquo; In this finely prepared edition, Rebecca N. Mitchell and Criscillia Benford draw detailed attention to one of Victorian Britainandrsquo;s greatest poems on sexual desire. This outstanding edition enables us to see why Meredith, a unique writer whose formidable demands too often account for his unjustifiable neglect, deserves renewed critical attention.andrdquo;andmdash;Joseph Bristow, University of California, Los Angeles
Review
andldquo;This complex, avant-garde Victorian poet comes into his own in this outstanding edition. Meredith's provocative experiments, prismatic ironies and shifting perspectives dazzle anew here, with the poems published alongside andlsquo;Modern Love,andrsquo; plus contemporary reviews, cultural documents of poetics, sexuality and the sensoria.andrdquo;andmdash;Isobel Armstrong, University of London
Review
andldquo;Rebecca Mitchell and Criscillia Benfordandrsquo;s important edition opens new possibilities in scholarship and classrooms by allowing readers to access Meredithandrsquo;s vibrant poetry in its cultural, publishing, and visual contexts.andrdquo;andmdash;Linda K. Hughes, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Victorian Poetry
Review
and#8220;This handsome, useful new edition. . . promises to draw deserved new attention to Meredithand#8217;s achievement.and#8221; and#8212;Choice
Review
Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 in theand#160;English American Category.
About the Author
Rebecca N. Mitchell is an associate professor of English at The University of Texas Pan American. Criscillia Benford is a Visiting Scholar in the English Department at Stanford University.