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Summary
Summary
In this text, students of Emily Dickinson can find a source of accurate, up-to-date information on the poet's life and works, her letters and manuscripts, the cultural climate of her times, her reception and influence, and the current state of Dickinson scholarship. Written by a distinguished group of contributors from the United States and abroad, the 22 essays in this volume reflect the many facets of the poet's oeuvre, as well as the principal trends in Dickinson studies.
Reviews (2)
Booklist Review
Dickinson, long portrayed as an ethereal spinster who turned her back on the world after suffering a broken heart, was actually a passionate, highly original, and slyly rebellious artist protesting the limitations placed on the women of her time with every stroke of her pen. The image of a virginal hermit was the product of one of Dickinson's editors, Mabel Loomis Todd, who was anxious to conceal the most intense relationship of Emily's unusual life, her love for Susan Huntington Dickinson. Emily and Susan knew each other since girlhood, and became profoundly involved emotionally, intellectually, and erotically even after Susan married Emily's brother, Austin, and moved next door, and after Austin entered into an affair with none other than Mabel Loomis Todd. Susan was Emily's muse, her "primary reader," and the object of her courtly love and spiritual devotion. Smith and Hart have chosen the most striking of Emily's letters to the woman she loved for this groundbreaking volume, which gracefully reveals the inspiration for so much of her personal and poetic ardor. So arresting and resonant are Dickinson's poems, they support an entire field of study that, with the help of books like Smith and Hart's, will continue to grow. For now, the best of recent Dickinson scholarship is gathered together in the multifaceted Emily Dickinson Handbook, a collection of essays that examine Dickinson's life, poetry, poetics, and social perspective. The contributors include the Dickinson scholars Judith Farr, Richard Sewall, and Suzanne Juhasz, and each addresses topics such as Dickinson's themes, metaphors, dialogic voice, and experimental language, as well as feminist interpretations, and visual and theatrical adaptations of her work. For all her pondering of death, Dickinson has achieved what looks a lot like immortality. --Donna Seaman
Choice Review
This volume satisfies a longstanding need in 19th-century US literature studies, providing a ready-reference guide with essential, up-to-date material about Dickinson's life and art, her manuscripts, and the present state of research. Appearing shortly after the publication of Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, ed. by Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith (CH, Apr'99), and An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia, ed. by Jane Donahue Eberwein (CH, Dec'98), it is bound to add further impetus to critical inquiry into Dickinson's point of view, how and what she wrote, and additional perspectives from which her work can be examined and understood. The 22 essays, most of them by seasoned Dickinson scholars, appear under convenient headings ranging from biography, historical context, and reception and influence, to poetics and new directions in Dickinson scholarship. Among the more intriguing contributions are Paul Crumbley's "Dickinson's Dialogic Voice," Sharon Cameron's "Dickinson's Fascicles," Roland Hagenbuchle's "Dickinson and Literary Theory," and Margaret H. Freeman's "A Cognitive Approach to Dickinson's Metaphors." An extensive bibliography, a general index, and an index of poems complete this volume, which is highly recommended for all libraries. S. I. Bellman emeritus, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
