Pegasus in Harness - Victorian Literature and Culture Series

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Publisher Marketing: In this fresh look at the relationship between an author and his publishers, Peter L. Shillingsburg reassesses W. M. Thackeray's writing within the context of the Victorian marketplace. He explores the forces under which Thackeray wrote, and addresses the broader question of the extent to which authors are free to invent their books given the influences of theoretical trends and the publishing marketplace. Rejecting both the Romantic notion of the autonomous genius and the Marxist concept of social and economic determinism, Shillingsburg presents a concept of the artist as being, simultaneously, bound and free, a Pegasus in harness.

Contributor Bio:  Shillingsburg, Peter L Peter L. Shillingsburg is Professor of English at Mississippi State University. He is the author of Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and William Makepeace Thackeray and Scholarly Editing in the Computer Age. He is the editor of the Garland Press editions of Thackeray's Flore et ZEphyr, Yellowplush, Vanity Fair, and Pendennis as well as Poems of Howell Gwin. Shillingsburg has been visiting professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy and was also a Guggenheim Fellow.