The Collected Works of Anna Letitia Barbauld: Volume 3 Literary Criticism

by Kraft, Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9780198704331
• ISBN10: 019870433X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2026-12-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Summary

The Collected Works of Anna Letitia Barbauld presents, for the first time, all the known surviving works of this major English writer, who lived from 1743 to 1825. Poet, essayist, editor, innovative writer for children, polemicist for religious and political reform, Barbauld helped set the agenda for Anglo­American culture for over a century. Her poems influenced Coleridge and Wordsworth; her writings on education, church­state relations, identity politics, and the ethics of citizenship are freshly relevant today; her commentary on books and writers went far to establish today's canon of English novelists. Beyond their importance, her writings are distinguished by great charm and profound intelligence.

Volume III, Literary Criticism, brings together her considerable body of work in literary criticism, from her early essays on the poets Mark Akenside and William Collins to her canon­making introductions to the 50-volume edition of British Novelists issued by the publishing house of Longman. Barbauld also edited and introduced the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson in an edition which may very well be responsible for a young Jane Austen's enthusiastic reading of Richardson's work and her own foray into the writing of novels. Also included in this volume is the preliminary essay Barbauld wrote to preface the edition of Selections from the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, and Freeholder published by Joseph Johnson. Like her short, unsigned reviews for the Monthly Review, the introductory essays were addressed to a growing middle-class readership and served to elevate the taste of the reading public. Barbauld's critical work served as a model for women writers of the next generations. George Eliot and Virginia Woolf would also write anonymous reviews for the magazines, thus honing their own skills and continuing to encourage the refinement of literary taste and production. Barbauld's love of literature fueled her critical analyses, and her essays speak to the love of reading as much as they provide critique of the works under consideration. Her concern is always for the common reader who seeks in books both instruction and pleasure.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Kraft, Professor Emerita of English, University of Georgia

Elizabeth Kraft was a faculty member in the English Department of the University of Georgia for 33 years, retiring in 2020. She taught a wide range of courses in the field of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature and pursued an active research agenda focusing on the novel, women writers, and ethical theory. In retirement she continues to conduct research with projects ranging from editions to critical analyses. Her current book-length project is on the “she tragedy.”

Table of Contents

IllustrationsAcknowledgementsGeneral IntroductionChronologyAbbreviationsVolume IntroductionTHE WORKS1. Essay on Akenside's Poem on the Pleasures of Imagination (1795)2. On the Poetical Works of Mr. William Collins (1797)3. Life of Samuel Richardson, with Remarks on his Writings (1804)4. Preliminary Essay to the Selection from the Spectator, &c. (1805)5. 1. The British Novelists (1810)On the Origin and Progress of Novel-WritingRichardsonDefoeFieldingClara ReeveWalpoleGoldsmithMrs. LennoxJohnsonHawkesworthMrs. BrookeMrs. InchbaldMackenzieSmolletDr. MooreMrs. Charlotte SmithMiss BurneyMrs. RadcliffeMr. BageMiss EdgeworthReviews6. The Annual ReviewReview of Joanna Baillie, A Series of Plays (1803)Review of Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)7. Letter in defense of Maria Edgeworth's Tales of Fashionable Life (1810)8. Contributions to the 'Monthly Catalogue', Monthly Review (1809-1815)9. Conjectural AttributionsReview of The Poems of Mrs. Opie, Annual Review (1803)Review of Henry Boyd's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, Annual Review (1803)Appendix A: The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson: Description of the EmbellishmentsAppendix B: Contents of Selections from the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, and FreeholderAppendix C: Contents of The British NovelistsCommentary NotesSources of the TextsGeneral BibliographyIndex