Stephen Knight

This book explores and explains stories about the mythic outlaw, who from the Middle Ages to the present day has stood up for the values of natural law and true justice. Analysing the whole sequence of Robin Hood adventures, it begins with the medieval tradition, including early poems and the long-surviving sung ballads, and goes on to look at two variant Robins: the Scottish version, here named Rabbie Hood, and gentrified Robin, the exiled Earl of Huntington, now partnered by Lady Marian. The nineteenth century re-imagined Robin as a modern figure – a lover of nature, Marian, England and the rights of the ordinary man. In novels and films he has developed into an international figure of freedom, while Marian’s role has grown in a modern feminist context. Even to this day, the Robin Hood myth continues to reproduce itself, constantly discovering new forms and new meanings.

"The mythical character of Robin Hood has become an icon through his presence in popular culture for the last 600 years.... Knight is extremely knowledgeable about his subject."-Library Journal The only figure in the Dictionary of National Biography who is said never to have existed, Robin Hood has taken on an air of reality few historical figures achieve. His image in various guises has been put to use as a subject of ballads, nationalist rallying point, Disney cartoon fox, greenclad figure of farce, tabloid fodder, and template for petty criminals and progressive political candidates alike. In this engaging and deeply informed book Stephen Knight looks at the different manifestations of Robin Hood at different times and places in a mythic biography with a thematic structure. The best way to get at the essence of the Robin Hood myth, Knight believes, is in terms not of chronological and generic progression but of the purposes served by heroes. Each of the book's four central chapters identifies a particular model of the hero, mythic or biographic, which dominated in certain periods and in certain genres, and explores their interrelations, their implications, and their historical and sociopolitical contexts.

In this comprehensive study, Stephen Knight documents the writing career of Ernest Jones, one of the primary figures within the Chartist movement. While much has been said about Ernest Jones as a political leader and activist, little attention has been paid to his fiction. This study delves deep into this body of work, analyzing the novellas, short stories, and novels penned by Jones throughout his career. Knight expands upon this fiction in detail, exploring and contextualizing the social and political themes that develop through each narrative. The chapters further examine the recurrent use of Jones’s characteristic analytic comments on the politics of his world. Those interested in 19th century British history and literature will not only learn about Jones’s fictional contributions to the Chartist movement, but also will glean new insights into tthe radical and political fiction of the period.

English Industrial Fiction of the Mid-Nineteenth Century discusses the valuable fiction written in mid-nineteenth-century Britain which represents the situations of the new breed of industrial workers, both the mostly male factory workers who operated in the oppressive mills of the midlands and north and, in other stories, the oppressed seamstresses who worked mostly in London in very poor and low-paid conditions. Beginning with a general introduction to workers’ fiction at the start of the period, this volume charts the rise of an identifiable genre of industrial fiction and the development of a substantial mode of seamstress fiction through the 1840s, including an analysis of novels by Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Kingsley, Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens, and more briefly Charlotte Bronte, Geraldine Jewsbury and George Eliot. This volume is essential reading for students and scholars of industrial fiction and nineteenth-century Britain, or those with an interest in the relationship between literature, society and politics.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the complete works of Wilkie Collins’s. Examining his vast array of novels and short stories, this volume includes analysis of the social, historical, and political commentary Collins offered within his works, illuminating Collins as more than a successful crime and sensation author, or the fortunate recipient of Dicken’s grand patronage, but as a hard-thinking and lively-writing part of the rich mid-Victorian literary scene. Overall, Collins is seen as a master of narratives which deal with social and personal issues that were much debated in his fifty-year authorial period. Close attention is paid to the events, themes, and characterization in his fiction, revealing his analytic vigor and the literary power of that period and context. Delivering fresh insight into the variety and richness of Collins’ themes and arguments, this volume provides a key source of information and analysis on all Collins’ fiction.

English Industrial Fiction of the Mid-Nineteenth Century discusses the valuable fiction written in mid-nineteenth-century Britain which represents the situations of the new breed of industrial workers, both the mostly male factory workers who operated in the oppressive mills of the midlands and north and, in other stories, the oppressed seamstresses who worked mostly in London in very poor and low-paid conditions. Beginning with a general introduction to workers’ fiction at the start of the period, this volume charts the rise of an identifiable genre of industrial fiction and the development of a substantial mode of seamstress fiction through the 1840s, including an analysis of novels by Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Kingsley, Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens, and more briefly Charlotte Bronte, Geraldine Jewsbury and George Eliot. This volume is essential reading for students and scholars of industrial fiction and nineteenth-century Britain, or those with an interest in the relationship between literature, society and politics.

This book begins by considering ecocritical approaches to literary texts and then moves to a discussion of the ways in which Welsh, French and English authors recount the Peredur/Perceval story. The study then embarks on full-chapter studies of the treatment of nature in a range of major authors and texts, including the work of Chaucer, the Scottish Chaucerians (Dunbar and Henryson), the medieval and early modern outlaw myths (particularly those concerning Robin Hood), the medieval English romances, and finally a selection of medieval English lyrics. The book argues that while some texts represent the actual forces and patterns of the natural and animal worlds, other texts use the natural and animal worlds both as a way of understanding nature itself and as a basis for a critique of the human and increasingly urban world of the medieval period.

A fast paced action packed international thriller and ultimate espionage adventure. The action moves from the Kremlin, to the biggest nuclear missile sites in the then Soviet Union and the United States followed by their escape via Singapore to Australia. Following their arrest by INTERPOL and with their CIA Black Ops training they are sent Afghanistan. For several years Gerry Williams and Peter Shelby are manipulated by Soviet and American task masters to undertake perilous missions culminating with their eventual sanctuary in China.

The Great War broke out on August 4th, 1914, impacting the lives of millions around the world. Many people thought - or hoped - that the War would be short. One of the young men who entered the fighting that month, and who served until his death in March 1918, was twenty-five year old William George Gabain M.C. Known to family to this day, as "Uncle Willie," he lost his life early in Germany's last offensive, Operation Michael, in March 1918, and is buried in the British cemetery at Pargny, France by the Somme Canal. Gabain was born in Le Havre. He traveled and studied in Germany and also read German language at Cambridge. Because of this background and fluency in French and German, he was valued as an intelligence officer. In 1915, he operated a train watching service in German occupied Belgium. In France he spent his time at GHQ, served in the 1916 Battle of the Somme and at Ypres in Belgium. He questioned prisoners, studied the terrain, flew over the trenches, translated captured documents and letters, listened to German wireless communications, and reported to GHQ and General Haig. His best friend was his Triumph motorcycle. He was educated at Sandroyd, Charterhouse and Cambridge's Pembroke College. He loved sports, especially boxing. He was survived by his parents, Charles Edward Gabain and Elizabeth Hutton Gabain, and his sisters Marjorie, Dorothy, Ruth, Nora, and Ethel. In 1921, his grief stricken mother privately published a book with excerpts from his journals, his letters, her thoughts and feelings, and condolences the family received from people who knew and served with him. His story is one of millions of men and their families who suffered and lost so much in The Great War.

The Great War broke out on August 4th, 1914, impacting the lives of millions around the world. Many people thought - or hoped - that the War would be short. One of the young men who entered the fighting that onth, and who served until his death in March 1918, was twenty-five year old William George Gabain M.C. Known to family to this day, as "Uncle Willie," he lost his life early in Germany's last offensive, Operation Michael, in March 1918, and is buried in the British cemetery at Pargny, France by the Somme Canal. Gabain was born in Le Havre. He traveled and studied in Germany and also read German language at Cambridge. Because of this background and fluency in French and German, he was valued as an intelligence officer. In 1915, he operated a train watching service in German occupied Belgium. In France he spent his time at GHQ, served in the 1916 Battle of the Somme and at Ypres in Belgium. He questioned prisoners, studied the terrain, flew over the trenches, translated captured documents and letters, listened to German wireless communications, and reported to GHQ and General Haig. His best friend was his Triumph motorcycle. He was educated at Sandroyd, Charterhouse and Cambridge's Pembroke College. He loved sports, especially boxing. He was survived by his parents, Charles Edward Gabain and Elizabeth Hutton Gabain, and his sisters Marjorie, Dorothy, Ruth, Nora, and Ethel. In 1921, his grief stricken mother privately published a book with excerpts from his journals, his letters, her thoughts and feelings, and condolences the family received from people who knew and served with him. His story is one of millions of men and their families who suffered and lost so much in The Great War.

Medieval Literature and Social Politics brings together seventeen articles by literary historian Stephen Knight. The book primarily focuses on the social and political meaning of medieval literature, in the past and the present. It provides an account of how early heroic texts relate to the issues surrounding leadership and conflict in Wales, France and England, and how the myth of the Grail and the French reworking of Celtic stories relate to contemporary society and its concerns. Further chapters examine Chaucer’s readings of his social world, the medieval reworkings of the Arthur and Merlin myths, and the popular social statements in ballads and other literary forms. The concluding chapters examine the Anglo-nationalist `Arctic Arthur’, and the ways in which Arthur, Merlin and Robin Hood can be treated in terms of modern studies of the history of emotions and the environment.This book will be of interest to scholars and students of medieval Europe, as well as those interested in social and political history, medieval literature and modern medievalism (CS 1099).

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the complete works of Wilkie Collins’s. Examining his vast array of novels and short stories, this volume includes analysis of the social, historical, and political commentary Collins offered within his works, illuminating Collins as more than a successful crime and sensation author, or the fortunate recipient of Dicken’s grand patronage, but as a hard-thinking and lively-writing part of the rich mid-Victorian literary scene. Overall, Collins is seen as a master of narratives which deal with social and personal issues that were much debated in his fifty-year authorial period. Close attention is paid to the events, themes, and characterization in his fiction, revealing his analytic vigor and the literary power of that period and context. Delivering fresh insight into the variety and richness of Collins’ themes and arguments, this volume provides a key source of information and analysis on all Collins’ fiction.

Medieval Literature and Social Politics brings together seventeen articles by literary historian Stephen Knight. The book primarily focuses on the social and political meaning of medieval literature, in the past and the present. It provides an account of how early heroic texts relate to the issues surrounding leadership and conflict in Wales, France and England, and how the myth of the Grail and the French reworking of Celtic stories relate to contemporary society and its concerns. Further chapters examine Chaucer’s readings of his social world, the medieval reworkings of the Arthur and Merlin myths, and the popular social statements in ballads and other literary forms. The concluding chapters examine the Anglo-nationalist `Arctic Arthur’, and the ways in which Arthur, Merlin and Robin Hood can be treated in terms of modern studies of the history of emotions and the environment.This book will be of interest to scholars and students of medieval Europe, as well as those interested in social and political history, medieval literature and modern medievalism (CS 1099).

George Reynolds is arguably the most prolific of all nineteenth-century English novelists, reaching an enormous audience through his thirty-six novels. Often selling in very large numbers in weekly one-penny installments, his works were known as by the most popular English novelist ever. Yet today, he remains almost unknown in the canon of English Literature.A serious radical, strongly pro-woman, and a leading Chartist seeking the vote for all men, Reynolds’ vigorous heroines differ notably from the Victorian novelists’ timid norm. He was strongly pro-Jewish and pro-Gypsy, very interested in French and Italian society, but wrote for ordinary English working people. Dickens thought him a dangerous leftist: for all these reasons, he was excluded from the elite literary world.G. W. M. Reynolds: The Man Who Outsold Dickens reestablishes Reynolds as a major figure of mid-nineteenth-century fiction and an author of European range and status. This book examines his massive popularity and notable concern with the problems of ordinary people, especially women, in the complex and often dangerous new world of the modern city. With the support of his wife Susannah, Reynolds’ enormous influence would also make a contribution to the cause of mass political education through his role in the development of popular fiction and journalism. This book is a major innovation in the field of Victorian literary studies, with relevance to popular cultural studies, the politics of literature, and publishing history, presenting properly a much overlooked major English novelist.

First poetry collection for 8 years from a long-admired poet who has twice been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize

A fast paced novel about a Los Angeles Times crime reporter who takes on a local criminal kingpin billionaire Martin Nelson. Harry Walsh has been reporting on the murders of young women since the beginning of the year. Things really begin to heat up once he gets on the trail of those doing the killing. He tries to expose Nelson as being responsible for numerous criminal activities in Los Angeles, including murder. Walsh becomes a target himself and gets entangled in the United States criminal justice system. The book details the profits that can be obtained by someone at the top of an independent criminal organization, not in anyway associated with the east or west coast mob. It shows how difficult it is to pin anything on someone like Nelson. It identifies illegal criminal activity revenue streams, both clean and dirty money. The action moves from Marina Del Rey, California to St Tropez on the French Riviera. This is Stephen Knight's third novel. A departure from his first two novels about nuclear espionage in the United States, The Minot Mission and special forces payback in Afghanistan, The Afghan Mission.

In The University is Closed for Open Day, Stephen Knight explores aspects of ultra-modern Australia, from tattoos, shabby chic and our obsession with personal devices, to the 'poetry' of number plates. Other critiques explore national myths and consider the recurring conflict over 'White Australia or Fair Australia?' The essays debate the meanings and misinterpretations of environmentalism, reveal the surprising riches of Australian crime fiction, and end with the title essay, which examines the wide and serious changes made to Australia's-and the world's-university system in recent times. Here, Knight resumes his ironic observation of the allegedly Great South Land, as previously offered in The Selling of The Australian Mind and Freedom Was Compulsory.

George Reynolds is arguably the most prolific of all nineteenth-century English novelists, reaching an enormous audience through his thirty-six novels. Often selling in very large numbers in weekly one-penny installments, his works were known as by the most popular English novelist ever. Yet today, he remains almost unknown in the canon of English Literature.A serious radical, strongly pro-woman, and a leading Chartist seeking the vote for all men, Reynolds’ vigorous heroines differ notably from the Victorian novelists’ timid norm. He was strongly pro-Jewish and pro-Gypsy, very interested in French and Italian society, but wrote for ordinary English working people. Dickens thought him a dangerous leftist: for all these reasons, he was excluded from the elite literary world.G. W. M. Reynolds: The Man Who Outsold Dickens reestablishes Reynolds as a major figure of mid-nineteenth-century fiction and an author of European range and status. This book examines his massive popularity and notable concern with the problems of ordinary people, especially women, in the complex and often dangerous new world of the modern city. With the support of his wife Susannah, Reynolds’ enormous influence would also make a contribution to the cause of mass political education through his role in the development of popular fiction and journalism. This book is a major innovation in the field of Victorian literary studies, with relevance to popular cultural studies, the politics of literature, and publishing history, presenting properly a much overlooked major English novelist.

Australian crime fiction has grown from the country's origins as an 18th-century English prison colony. Early stories focused on escaped convicts becoming heroic bush rangers, or how the system mistreated those who were wrongfully convicted. Later came thrillers about wealthy free settlers and lawless gold-seekers, and urban crime fiction, including Fergus Hume's 1887 international best-seller The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, set in Melbourne. The 1980s saw a surge of private-eye thrillers, popular in a society skeptical of police. Twenty-first century authors have focused on policemen--and increasingly policewomen--and finally indigenous crime narratives. The author explores in detail this rich but little known national subgenre.