John Halifax, Gentleman by Dinah Mulock Craik, Lynn M. AlexanderVillette by Charlotte Brontë, Kate LawsonThe Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Maria K. Bachman, Don Richard CoxShe: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard, Andrew M. StaufferThe Hound of the Baskervilles with 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' by Arthur Conan Doyle, Francis O'Gorman'Hauntings' and Other Fantastic Tales by

Abstract

MLR, 103.2, 2oo8 5I9 her fiction.Nevertheless, its careful consideration of theways inwhich 'Eliot asks questions about themind throughout her fiction' (p. I2) forms the basis for some thoughtful reflection on the psychological complexities manifested in her texts: on theworkings of conscious and unconscious memory in TheMill on theFloss forex ample, and its role in the formation of her heroine's identity,or on the 'drama of intricatemental dynamics' (p. 155) that, inMiddlemarch, makes Bulstrode '[m]uch more than a simple villain' (ibid.). Davis makes some perceptive observations on the role of language inboth articu lating and limitingmental lifeand on Eliot's 'experimental' deployment of language to create a fictive medium inwhich no one system of psychology holds explanatory power. Her writing constantly represents differentpossibilities without marginalizing the significance of any of the fluidand complex relations between thebody andmind, emotion and reason, the conscious and unconscious, thematerial and the spiritual. Readers might wish formore adventurous readings to enliven the expository con tentofDavis's book. None the less, in itsview of the mind as intricately linked to the knowable material world, yet enduringly apart, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Psychology isuseful as an acknowledgement that thepiercing lightof Lydgate's ima ginative enquiry remains part of thedarkness that it sets out to illuminate. THE OPEN UNIVERSITY DELIA DA SOUSA CORREA JohnHalifax, Gentleman. By DINAH MULOCK CRAIK. Ed. by LYNN M. ALEXANDER. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press. 2005. 585 PP. ?9.55. ISBN 978-I 55III-500-9. Villette. By CHARLOTTE BRONTE. Ed. by KATE LAWSON. Peterborough, Ont.: Broad view Press. 2006. 647 PP. ?7.99. ISBN 978-1-55III-46I-3. The Woman in White. By WILKIE COLLINS. Ed. by MARIA K. BACHMAN and DON RICHARD COX. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press. 2oo6. 694 PP. ?5.99. ISBN 978-I-5 5 I I I-644-0. She: A History of Adventure. By H. RIDER HAGGARD. Ed. by ANDREW M. STAUFFER. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press. 2006. 359 PP. ?6.99. ISBN 978-I 55III-647-I. The Hound of the Baskervilles with 'TheAdventure of theSpeckled Band'. By ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. Ed. by FRANCIS O'GORMAN. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press. 2006. 300 pp. ?5.99. ISBN 978-1-55III-722-5. 'Hauntings'and Other Fantastic Tales. By VERNON LEE. Ed. by CATHERINEMAXWELL and PATRICIA PULHAM. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press. 2oo6. 35 I pp. ?9.99. ISBN 978-1-55III-578-8. My Antonia. By WILLA CATHER. Ed. by JANET SHARISTANIAN. (Oxford World's Clas siCs)Oxford: Oxford University Press. zoo6. XXXiV + 228 pp. ?7.99. ISBN 978 0-I9-283200-9. The Age of Innocence. By EDITH WHARTON. Ed. by STEPHEN ORGEL. (Oxford World's Classics) Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2oo6. xxv + 265 pp. ?7.99. ISBN 978-o-Ig-280662-8. London: A Pilgrimage. By BLANCHARD JERROLD,illustrated by GUSTAVE DORE. Ed. by PETER ACKROYD. (Anthem Travel Classics) London: Anthem Press. 2005. XXXi+223 pp. ?9.99. ISBN 978-I-84331-I93-5. Readers and, more particularly, teachers of literature and their students once again have good reason to be grateful forWorld's Classics and Broadview editions. For 520 Reviews decades thewell-established Oxford series has not only been making literary texts available at reasonable prices, but also keeping them in print. Now the Canadian publisher also isbecoming known for thehigh quality of itscontribution to this task. The range shown in thechoice of texts is impressive, andmaking a selection ofVic torian and early twentieth-century examples thatmay appeal particularly to feminist interest isby nomeans difficult. World's Classics presents twonovels from theUnited States. Both written bywomen in the years just after theGreat War, they offer two contrasting pictures of life inAmerica, not at that time,but in thenineteenth century. Nostalgia colours the interpretation both of harsh pioneer life in the Mid-West and of over-polished manners inNew York society.Broadview shows catholicity of taste in six texts that show a number of aspects of British Victorian fiction,without, of course, coming near to exhausting its infinitevariety.Yohn Halifax, Gentleman raises crucial social questions, while Villette reveals a finersensibility. The Woman in White can excite curiosity by relating its intriguing storywith more acumen than is found in much of the fictionof itsperiod. Vernon...