Judy Simons

Judy Simons thought to leave her grandchildren a legacy of reminiscences about her Jewish upbringing in 1950s Sheffield. But when her mother died shortly before her hundredth birthday, Judy discovered a treasure chest of papers hidden at the back of the wardrobe. Reading them, she realised she had unearthed a gripping family saga.

Rosamond Lehmann’s first book, Dusty Answer (1927), with its scandalous subject matter, made her a literary celebrity at the age of twenty-seven. Seen as the voice of a new generation, she became the centre of an artistic circle that included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Elizabeth Bowen. Lehmann’s novels deal with the urgency of romance and the vicissitudes of young women in love, and depict the emotional rollercoaster of romance and the tortuous process of growing up more directly than any writer before her. This book locates Lehmann’s fictional achievement in the context of her times and in particular describes its positioning within the turbulent period between two world wars and the changing aesthetic of modernity. It includes a penetrating critical analysis of each of the major works, drawing on previously unpublished private papers, including letters to family and friends. In this it provides fresh and original insights into one of the most celebrated English novelists of her age.

This book examines a key topic in modern literary studies. Contextual factors shape our perception of how literary texts are made, and how they are read. Their understanding is fundamental to the study of English at undergraduate level and is becoming increasingly important at 'A' Level. This book contains accessible essays by leading scholars on the contextual understanding of works of literature from Chaucer to the present day. The writers and texts chosen are central in 'A' Level and undergraduate syllabuses. The book is endorsed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and the Council for College and University English (CCUE).

Mansfield Park and Persuasion are notoriously problematic works which have stimulated diverse and often polarised critical readings. This collection illustrates these oppositions and recreates the current lively debate about the novels' interpretation. Examining the texts in the light of key developments in cultural, historicist and feminist theory, the volume both provides a view of Austen as a traditionalist and simultaneously argues for Mansfield Park and Persuasion as radical works which address contemporary politics of culture and of gender in exciting collocations.

What Katy Read focuses on a much neglected area of literary criticism: literature for girls. Written by women for children, such texts have been doubly marginalized by the critical establishment. Shirley Foster and Judy Simons use twentieth-century feminist critical practice to open up fresh perspectives on popular fiction for girls written between 1850 and 1920. The study analyses both American and British novels for girls which have acquired 'classic' status, from the domestic myth to the school story, and considers their scope and influence in providing role models for girl readers.