This book publishes all Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall's extant poetry in a single volume for the first time.
- Submitting institution
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Birmingham City University
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 27Z_OP_R0001
- Type
- R - Scholarly edition
- DOI
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- Title of edition
- My Ladys Soul: The poems of Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall
- Publisher
- Victorian Secrets
- ISBN
- 978-1-906469-62-7
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
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- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This edition, fruit of a two-year project, offers an introduction by Trowbridge of over 5000 words including footnotes, introducing Siddall, providing a literature review, discussion of her poetry, and publication history. A complete bibliography of works on Siddall’s poetry and a timeline of Siddall’s life are also included. Though the poet’s output was limited (15 poems plus 6 fragments), each poem has notes and a contextual/interpretative discussion, totalling around 15,300 words. Trowbridge transcribed each poem from manuscript sources, rather than relying on highly edited and often amended published versions; the fragments had not been transcribed before this edition.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The purpose of this research was to produce the first variorum, scholarly edition of Siddall’s poetry. Her poems were initially published by William Michael Rossetti in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it was unknown that Rossetti altered the poems, changing word and stanza order, adding punctuation, titles and substituting words. The fragments had not been published or discussed in critical studies before this publication, though some relate to published poems and are revealing regarding the poet’s creative practice.
Trowbridge’s research process began with archival work, transcribing the poems (in multiple forms across a number of manuscripts) at the Ashmolean. The manuscripts were scribbled and scrappy, with no fair copies in the poet’s hand; the writing was difficult to read, and the process of transcribing and checking each poem took months of work. Trowbridge annotated each poem to indicate the alterations made by Siddall, the variances between Siddall’s and Rossetti’s versions, and other scholarly points of note. Since the poems had, individually, received little critical attention, Trowbridge discussed each poem in turn, including relevant context and consideration of its literary merits and possible sources. These analyses required a considerable amount of biographical, contextual and literary research.
Trowbridge’s research found that Siddall’s poems are substantially different from those available in anthologies and online. Only three scholarly works explore the poems, and only one provides thorough, though limited, analysis; consequently, the poems had previously been misattributed, misprinted and overlooked in critical considerations of nineteenth-century women’s poetry. Subsequent to publication, Trowbridge’s research has featured in a number of media outlets including The Guardian¸ The TLS and Radio 3. The book is the publisher’s best seller. Reviews indicate that it has changed perceptions of Siddall, and there is fresh work by scholars across the UK and internationally based on Trowbridge’s discoveries.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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