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Article
On a Special Copy of Caroline Lamb's Glenarvon Recently Discovered in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek
The Byron Journal (2009)
  • Ria Grimbergen, San José State University
  • Paul Douglass, San Jose State University
Abstract
This essay analyses a recently discovered copy of the first edition of Lady Caroline Lamb's Glenarvon in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek at The Hague filled with annotations and corrections apparently in the hand of its author. This copy shows many of the extensive revisions eventually implemented in the second edition of the novel. Some changes indicated in this special copy were not adopted, however, and a note on the punctuation in a hand not the author's raises the question of whether others edited the work, especially the punctuation. The essay shows how, working with great skill to minimise the labour of resetting type, Lamb appears to have made her text less vulnerable to charges of indecency, blasphemy, and animus towards friends and relations. However, it also shows that the novel's major themes remain substantially unaltered, while the transgressions of Lamb's protagonist, Lady Calantha, are excused as the result of ineluctable passions. The consistency of the substantive alterations and the inconsistency of the punctuational changes suggest that Lamb probably had the final word on revisions.
Keywords
  • Caroline Lamb
Publication Date
2009
DOI
10.1353/byr.0.0065
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2008 Liverpool University Press.
This article was originally published in The Byron Journal Vol. 37, Iss. 2 by Liverpool University Press, 2009. The article is also available online at this link. The article is included with the permission of the publisher.
Citation Information
Ria Grimbergen and Paul Douglass. "On a Special Copy of Caroline Lamb's Glenarvon Recently Discovered in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek" The Byron Journal Vol. 37 Iss. 2 (2009) p. 151 - 160 ISSN: 0301-7257
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/paul_douglass/10/