Professor Vincent Newey retired from our School of English in 2008 with an impressive body of work to his credit including his acclaimed 2004 book The Scriptures of Charles Dickens: Novels of Ideology, Novels of the Self. For a number of years he edited the ‘19th century’ series of monographs for Ashgate Publishing so it is appropriate that Ashgate is the publisher of a new volume, Literature and Authenticity, 1780–1900: Essays in Honour of Vincent Newey.

The collection of essays addresses the treatment of the theme of 'authenticity' in literature from the late seventeenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. Authenticity has many meanings. In the 20th century it became a key term in continental existentialist philosophies, signifying commitment to a life lived without illusions. In its earlier incarnations the authentic has referred, variously, to personal and artistic integrity, truth to life, and sincerity of purpose.

The essays in this volume treat all these aspects of authenticity, charting the development of the term in dissenting Christian literature, in Romantic poetry, literary biographies, the Victorian novel and modern American poetry. Professor Newey’s colleague Professor Philip Shaw has co-edited the book together with Ashley Chantler from the University of Chester and Michael Davies from the University of Liverpool.

Literature and Authenticity, 1780–1900 has been published by Ashgate in hardback at £55.