Maxwell Gray, The Silence of Dean Maitland

by Julian Wolfreys (Editor)

Overview

First scholarly edition of a neglected, hugely popular best-seller
Key Features
First scholarly edition of forgotten late Victorian classic of rural life and sensation fictionComprehensive selection of contemporary reviews and commentariesCarefully contextualized introduction to the novel and its authorMaxwell Gray tells the sensational story of an ambitious clergyman, who accidentally kills the father of a woman he has made pregnant, and then allows his closest friend to be convicted of the murder. The best-seller was subsequently filmed three times (1914, 1915, 1934) and presents fascinating insights into the forgotten world of late Victorian rural life.
Including a carefully contextualised introduction to the novel and its author, this edition also provides a comprehensive selection of contemporary reviews and commentaries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474443241
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	02/16/2021
Series:	Edinburgh Critical Editions of Nineteenth-Century Texts
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mary Gleed Tuttiett, better known by the pen name Maxwell Gray, was an English novelist and poet best known for her 1886 novel The Silence of Dean Maitland.

Julian Wolfeys is Professor of English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, where he is also Director of the Centre for Studies in LIterature. He is author and editor of more than 40 books on nineteenth- and twentieth-century English literature and literary theory. Most recently he has published Dickens’s London and The Derrida Wordbook, both with Edinburgh UniversityPress. He recently published his first novel, Silent Music.

Table of Contents

IntroductionAcknowledgements and a note on the text

The Silence of Dean Maitland

Appendices

1. An Interview with Maxwell Gray, by Catherine Jane Hamilton, from The Woman at Home, 1895 (facsimile)

2. Period Map of the Isle of Wight c.1914

3. Frontispiece illustration from the fifth edition of the novel

4. "Shooting" a Scene. For an Australian Talkie. Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 7 December, 1933 (facsimile)

5. Reviews of and Commentary on The Silence of Dean Maitland, with commentary on and reviews of the Australian film versions (1914, 1934) of the novel, and related material 1886-1991

6. Poster for 1934 film of The Silence of Dean Maitland

What People are Saying About This

The Silence of Dean Maitland, a very little known text from the mid-Victorian period, offers us a glimpse of the concerns of the period – the problem of crime and its detection and punishment; questions of conscience and behaviour in the post-Darwinian world – all set amongst a panorama of characters in rural mid-century Britain. In this novel, Mrs Henry Wood meets Mrs Humphry Ward and they both nod politely towards the world of Thomas Hardy. Wolfreys’ edition of this text gives us comprehensive notes to aid the reader’s understanding and a brilliant selection of contemporary commentary on the issues the novel raises. It gives us the chance to broaden our canon of Victorian fiction into realms that are resolutely not part of the old ‘Great Tradition’.

Leeds Beckett University Ruth Robbins

The Silence of Dean Maitland, a very little known text from the mid-Victorian period, offers us a glimpse of the concerns of the period – the problem of crime and its detection and punishment; questions of conscience and behaviour in the post-Darwinian world – all set amongst a panorama of characters in rural mid-century Britain. In this novel, Mrs Henry Wood meets Mrs Humphry Ward and they both nod politely towards the world of Thomas Hardy. Wolfreys’ edition of this text gives us comprehensive notes to aid the reader’s understanding and a brilliant selection of contemporary commentary on the issues the novel raises. It gives us the chance to broaden our canon of Victorian fiction into realms that are resolutely not part of the old ‘Great Tradition’.

Editorial Reviews

The Silence of Dean Maitland, a very little known text from the mid-Victorian period, offers us a glimpse of the concerns of the period – the problem of crime and its detection and punishment; questions of conscience and behaviour in the post-Darwinian world – all set amongst a panorama of characters in rural mid-century Britain. In this novel, Mrs Henry Wood meets Mrs Humphry Ward and they both nod politely towards the world of Thomas Hardy. Wolfreys’ edition of this text gives us comprehensive notes to aid the reader’s understanding and a brilliant selection of contemporary commentary on the issues the novel raises. It gives us the chance to broaden our canon of Victorian fiction into realms that are resolutely not part of the old ‘Great Tradition’.

Leeds Beckett University Ruth Robbins