From Writer to Reader : Studies in Editorial Method.

Gaskell, P.

ISBN 10: 019818171X / ISBN 13: 9780198181712

Published by Clarendon Press, Oxford, first edition, 1978, 1978

About this Item

Cloth, 8vo, 24 cm, xiii, 268 pp, ills. From the blurb: "Most of the major works of English literature are readily available today only in versions that are sadly inadequate. There are few reliable specialist editions; much worse, the majority of the paperback texts of English and American authors that are sold in their millions to students and general readers are corrupt and misleading. This is as unnecessary as it is undesirable. By combining a critical judgement with an understanding of textual bibliography, an editor can establish a 'critical text' that is as authoritative as the evidence allows, and can present it in the form best suited to his intended audience. The examples given in this book show how this may be done. Dr. Gaskell presents extracts from the early texts of twelve works of literature. He has chosen them not only because of their importance as works of art but also on account of the quantity and variety of the surviving textual evidence; and so by skilfully following each extract through its surviving stages from writer to reader he encompasses a variety of subjects and treatments. His authors are Harington (Ariosto's Orlando Furioso), Milton (Comus), Richardson (Pamela), Swift (Directions to Servants), Scott (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), Tennyson (OEnone), Dickens (David Copperfield), Thackeray (Henry Esmond), Hawthorne (The Marble Faun), Hardy (The Woodlanders), Joyce (Ulysses), and Tom Stoppard (Travesties)." Very Good in a dustwrapper which is slightly faded around the spine.

Seller Inventory # ABE-51028

Bibliographic Details

• Title: From Writer to Reader : Studies in Editorial Method.
• Publisher: Clarendon Press, Oxford, first edition, 1978
• Publication Date: 1978
• ISBN 10: 019818171X
• ISBN 13: 9780198181712
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Books About Books

About this title

Synopsis

First edition. Most of the major works of English literature are readily available today only in versions that are sadly inadequate. There are few reliable specialist editions; much worse, the majority of the paperback texts of English and American authors that are sold in their millions to students and general readers are corrupt and misleading. This is as unnecessary as it is undesirable. By combining a critical judgement with an understanding of textual bibliography, an editor can establish a "critical text" that is as authoritative as the evidence allows, and can present it in the form best suited to the intended audience. The examples given in this book show how this may be done. Dr. Gaskell presents extracts from the early texts of twelve works of literature. He has chosen them not only because of their importance as works of art but also on account of the quantity and variety of the surviving textual evidence; and so by skillfully following each extract through its surviving stages from writer to reader he encompasses a variety of subjects and treatments. Jacket spine faded. xiv, 268 pages. cloth, dust jacket. 8vo..