The Edinburgh History of Twentieth-Century Literature in Britain General Editor: Randall Stevenson How did literature develop in Britain in the twentieth century? How did it interact with the wider culture and history of the times? Each of the ten volumes in this series analyses the literary developments of a single decade in their widest contexts. Literature of the 1900s: The Great Edwardian Emporium Jonathan Wild Challenges conventional views of the Edwardian period as either a hangover of Victorianism or a bystander to literary modernism In this ground-breaking study, Jonathan Wild investigates the literary history of the Edwardian decade. This period, long overlooked by critics, is revealed as a vibrant cultural era whose writers were determined to break away from the stifling influence of preceding Victorianism. In the hands of this generation, which included writers such as Arnold Bennett, Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, Beatrix Potter and H. G. Wells, the new century presented a unique opportunity to fashion innovative books for fresh audiences. Wild traces this literary innovation by conceptualising the focal points of his study as departments of one of the new stores, such as Selfridges, that epitomised Edwardian modernity. These 'departments' - war and imperialism, the rise of the lower middle class, children's literature, technology and decadence, and the condition of England - offer both discrete and interconnected ways in which to understand the distinctiveness and importance of the Edwardian literary scene. Overall, Literature of the 1900s offers a long-overdue investigation into a decade of literature that provided the cultural foundation for the coming century. Jonathan Wild is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. He has published widely on late Victorian and Edwardian topics and is the author of The Rise of the Office Clerk in Literary Culture, 1880-1939 (2006). Cover image: The Book Shop (c) Francis Donkin Bedford, Heritage Images Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-0-7486-3506-1 Barcode