One of the most prolific and popular American writers of her time, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps is, nearly a century later, once more coming to be considered a major author. The Story of Avis, her most ambitious and successful novel, has long been out of print and will prove a revelation to modern readers. Avis is the story of a larger-than-life heroine, a promising artist, who against her better judgment is persuaded by her lover, Philip Ostrander--a "new man"--to marry. The failure of their modern marriage, and in due course of Avis's career, is inevitable. Phelps depicts the turmoil of her characters' inner lives with great sensitivity and with a skill that is striking. A feminist who clearly saw the constraints of traditional gender roles upon women and men, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps was ahead of her own time in post-Civil War America. She remains highly readable today. "The Story of Avis (1877) will shock any reader who still thinks nineteenth-century American women's fiction is sentimental and pious. This novel is angry, not sentimental; iconoclastic, not pious; it concerns a talented and dedicated painter whose marriage destroys her genius."--Choice "This ornately articulate novel is playful; both kind and hopeful in its vision of the female conundrum. . . . I had intended to speed read it]. I ready every word."--Joyce Bright, Belles Lettres

Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.

Avis Glaze was recently identified as one of the most inspiring women every educator should know. From her earliest days in Jamaica, as a young girl who was driven to teach others to read, to her rapid rise through all levels of the school system to become the founding CEO of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat and Ontario’s Education Commissioner, Glaze has been a persistent voice in the belief that there should be no ‘throw-away kids.’ Recognized for her record of innovations in education, including improved student learning and achievement in Ontario, she initiated system-wide character development programs in schools, communities and workplaces. This award-winning educator has been a steadfast advocate for equity of outcomes for all students. That is why Glaze has always acted with a sense of urgency because, as she often says, “the children cannot wait.” Glaze was chosen by the Canadian government to assist with education reform in South Africa. She is in demand as a speaker across the globe, having worked in more than 22 countries and over 30 U.S. states to help maximize impact. She is truly an international leader in the field of education. Part biography, part chronicle of achievements, this book will reignite passion and commitment to improve teaching, learning, leadership, and organizational effectiveness.

This volume is a comprehensive and transatlantic literary study of women’s nineteenth-and-twentieth-century fiction. Firstly, it introduces and explores the concept of women’s affective labour, and examines literary representations of this work in British and American fiction written by women between 1848 and 1915. Secondly, it revives largely ignored texts by the “scribbling women” of Britain and America, such as Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Mona Caird, and Mary Hunter Austin, and rereads established authors, such as Elizabeth Gaskell, Kate Chopin, and Edith Wharton, to demonstrate how all these works provide valuable insights into women’s lives in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Finally, by adopting the lens of affective labour, the study explores the ways in which women were portrayed as striving for self-fulfilment through forms of emotional, mental, and creative endeavours that have not always been fully appreciated as ‘work’ in critical accounts of nineteenth-and-twentieth-century fiction.

Challenging previous studies that claim anxiety and antagonism between transatlantic Victorian authors, Jennifer Cognard-Black uncovers a model of reciprocal influence among three of the most popular women writers of the era. Combining analyses of personal correspondence and print culture with close readings of key narratives, this study presents an original history of transatlantic authorship that examines how these writers invented a collaborative aesthetics both within and against the dominant discourse of professionalism.