We’re delighted to announce a new collection of short stories by distinguished literary critic Barbara Hardy.

Dorothea’s Daughter is based on novels by Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy. They are postscripts, rather than sequels, entering into dialogues with the original narratives by developing suggestions in the text. The authors’ conclusions are respected, with no changes made to the plot; instead, Barbara Hardy draws out loose threads in the original fabric to weave new material, imagining moments in the characters’ future lives.

To find out more, please visit the Dorothea’s Daughter webpage.

We’re very pleased to announce a new critical edition of Eliza Lynn Linton’s autobiography-in-drag, The Autobiography of Christopher Kirkland, edited by Deborah T. Meem and Kate Holterhoff.

In this astonishing work of literary transvestism, Linton adopts a male persona in order to recount her loss of faith at an early age, her sexual relationships with other women, and her disastrous marriage to the engraver William Linton. She told her publisher, George Bentley: “I have put my very Soul, my life into these pages.” In later life, she said it as “an outpour no one hears me make by word of mouth, a confession of sorrow, suffering, trial, and determination not to be beaten, which few suspect is the underlying truth of my life.”

This edition is completely reset and includes: an introduction, explanatory footnotes, contemporary reviews, extracts from George Layard’s biography of Linton, and extracts from Linton’s novel Sowing the Wind.

To find out more, please visit The Autobiography of Christopher Kirkland webpage.

We’re pleased to announce a new critical edition of F. Anstey’s comic novel Vice Versâ – a story so funny, it is famed for causing Trollope’s fatal stroke (to the modern reader, that could be either an endorsement or a terrible warning).

First published in 1882, Vice Versâ shows the disastrous consequences of having one’s wishes granted. After delivering a pompous lecture to his son Dick, stuffy Paul Bultitude declares his wish to be a schoolboy once more so he can enjoy the carefree existence of youth. Unfortunately for him, he happens to be clutching the mysterious and magical Garudâ stone, and suddenly finds himself transformed into the diminutive body of his son. Dick quickly uses the stone to his own advantage, assuming his father’s portly character and swapping roles. While Dick gets the opportunity to run his father’s business in the City and wreak havoc on the household, Paul must endure the privations of the brutal boarding school he forced young Dick to attend. Determined not to lose his dignity, Paul retains his former bombastic demeanour, leading to a series of hilarious episodes with the cane-wielding Dr Grimstone.

This new scholarly edition includes a comprehensive critical introduction by Peter Merchant, author biography, explanatory footnotes, and a wealth of contextual material. To find out more, please visit the Vice Versâ page.

We are pleased to announce a new critical edition of George Moore’s controversial novel, A Mummer’s Wife. First published in 1885, the novel tells the story of Kate Ede, a bored Midlands housewife unhappily married to an asthmatic draper. When a handsome travelling actor comes to lodge with her family, Kate succumbs to temptation, with disastrous consequences.

The shocking themes of alcoholism and adultery led to the novel being banned by Mudie’s, thus initiating a war of attrition between Moore and the circulating libraries. In his introduction to this edition, Anthony Patterson considers Moore’s work in the context of literary production and censorship, and also examines the novel’s themes.

This completely reset edition also includes:

• a preface by Moore’s biographer, Professor Adrian Frazier
• critical introduction, author biography and explanatory footnotes by Anthony Patterson
• the full text of Literature at Nurse, Moore’s polemic pamphlet in which he attacked the Grundyism of the circulating libraries.
• extracts from Moore’s A Communication to My Friends, in which he describes his first meeting with publisher Henry Vizetelly and the evolution of “A Mummer’s Wife”
• Moore’s preface to Zola’s Piping Hot!
• an excerpt from the autobiography of Jimmy Glover, whose experiences as an actor influenced the novel

For more information, please visit:

http://www.victoriansecrets.co.uk/books/a-mummers-wife/

We are very pleased to announce the release of Helen C. Black’s Notable Women Authors of the Day.

First published in 1893, Notable Women Authors of the Day began life as a series of interviews published in the popular women’s magazine the Lady’s Pictorial. The 30 featured authors were among the most successful of the late nineteenth century, and many were household names.

The interviews offer a tantalising glimpse into the life the Victorian woman writer, revealing the challenges of balancing their personal and professional lives. Helen C. Black describes the author and her home, sharing with the reader details of domestic arrangements and writing habits.   Told in the second person, the interviews create an immediacy and intimacy between the authors and the reader.

This new edition is based on the 1906 text, including the original portraits, along with a wealth of new material:

• preface by Troy J. Bassett on Helen C. Black and the Lady’s Pictorial
• critical introduction
• explanatory footnotes
• updated profiles on the Notable Women
• suggestions for further reading

For more information, and for details on how to order copies, please visit:

http://www.victoriansecrets.co.uk/books/notable-women-authors-of-the-day/

We are pleased to announce a new critical edition of George Gissing’s Demos, edited by Debbie Harrison.

Demos tells the story of London mechanic and ardent socialist Richard Mutimer, who unexpectedly inherits a fortune at the expense of the presumed heir, aristocratic Hubert Eldon. Mutimer leaves behind his old life to establish a model village for ironworkers in the idyllic Midland town of Wanley. He also deserts the girl who loves him, as he seeks to assume the social status of the middle-class capitalists he once despised.

This edition includes:

A preface by Pierre Coustillas; a critical introduction and notes by Debbie Harrison; suggestions for further reading; George Gissing biography & chronology; an appendix on the politics of Demos.

For more information, please see the Demos webpage.

We are pleased to announce a new critical edition of Rudyard Kipling’s semi-autobiographical first novel, The Light that Failed.

The Light that Failed tells the story of war artist Dick Heldar, his doomed love for childhood sweetheart Maisie, and his descent into blindness. Through Dick, Kipling considers the relationship between art and life, espousing his belief that the artist has a duty to paint only what he knows to be true.

This edition, edited by Paul Fox, includes: introduction, biography of Kipling, suggestions for further reading, explanatory footnotes, the alternative “happy ending” from the serialised version.

For more information, please see the our web page for The Light that Failed.

Victorian Secrets is pleased to annouce a new critical edition of Alice Perrin’s East of Suez.

Originally published in 1901, East of Suez was Perrin’s first collection of short stories.  Her fascinating and thought-provoking tales of Anglo-Indian life rival the best work of Kipling, and were hugely successful in their day.  Perrin tells stories of illicit love and betrayal set against a beautifully-drawn backdrop of the mystical east, interweaving the supernatural with exquisite details of her characters’ lives.  As the Times wrote in her obituary: “She wrote a simple, unforced style, and the reader feels keenly the heat, the dust, the moonrise, the night calls, and all the sights and sounds and smells of the unchanging East.”

This edition includes a scholarly introduction by Melissa Makala, author biography, suggestions for further reading, explanatory notes, contextual material on the British Raj, and original illustrations from the serialisation of the stories.

For more information, please visit the East of Suez webpage.

Victorian Secrets is an independent publisher dedicated to producing high-quality books from and about the nineteenth century, including critical editions of neglected novels. You can see feedback from some of our happy readers.

This month we made our first venture into narrative non-fiction with the publication of The Perfect Man, a biography of Eugen Sandow, the world’s first professional body-builder, by David Waller the award-winning author of The Magnificent Mrs Tennant.

Our books are available through most online booksellers, and your local friendly bookshop can easily order them in for you. The truly impatient can visit a shop with an Espresso Book Machine and get their hands on a freshly-minted copy in under five minutes.

We are gradually making all our titles available for the Kindle. The Blood of the Vampire, The Dead Man’s Message, Her Father’s Name, Twilight Stories, The Autobiography of Christopher Kirkland, Demos and The Perfect Man have been released. These electronic editions contain the full text and additional material included in the physical versions.

By popular demand (well, several requests), here are the latest sales rankings for our titles.  Mr Gissing is occupying the top slot by a considerable margin, but Weird Stories and The Blood of the Vampire are both selling strongly at the moment.

1. Workers in the Dawn by George Gissing
2. Weird Stories by Charlotte Riddell
3. The Blood of the Vampire by Florence Marryat
4. The Dead Man’s Message by Florence Marryat
5. Henry Dunbar by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
6. Twilight Stories by Rhoda Broughton
7. Her Father’s Name by Florence Marryat