Today’s recommended book offers a true literary mystery.
Who wrote the 1808 novel about the fictional Olivia Fairfax titled The Woman of Colour? As reported in Faculty News, Denys Van Renen wrote an entry on the text published in:
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women’s Writing, edited by Natasha Duquette, Palgrave, 2021. LINK
He also teaches the book in ENG 250 and published an essay on it:
“‘The Temple of Folly’: Transatlantic ‘Nature,’ Nabobs, and Environmental Degradation in The Woman of Colour (1808),” in the volume Romantic Sustainability: Endurance and the Natural World, 1780-1830, edited by Ben Robertson.
Despite a growing body of scholarship on the text, its authorship is still unknown.
In summer 2020, scholars Corrinne Harol, Brynn Lewis, Subhash Lele published an article in Eighteenth Century Fiction presenting how they used computer analytics to determine its authorship. Read their article to find out what they learned:
Harol, Corrinne Harol, Brynn Lewis, and Subhash Lele. “Who Wrote It? The Woman of Colour and Adventures in Stylometry” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 32.2 (2019): 341-353. LINK
You can check out the best edition of the book edited by Lyndon J. Dominique published by Broadview Press on the second floor of the Calvin T. Ryan Library at Book Collection (2nd Level) PR3991.A1 W64 2008.
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Check back every Monday for reading suggestions from the Reading Circle. For more book ideas, see these past Monday posts: