Early Irish Fiction: A Definitive Scholarly Edition of Charles Johnstone, The History of Arsaces, Prince of Betlis (1774)

这个项目的目的是提供一个主要的新的学术版本的十八世纪小说查尔斯约翰斯通，阿尔萨斯的历史，贝特利斯王子（1774年），作为一个新的一系列早期爱尔兰小说的一部分，c。1680-1820年，从四法院出版社，都柏林。约翰斯通是一位在他那个时代备受尊敬和敬畏的讽刺作家，被沃尔特·司各特爵士称为“散文少年”。他的作品首先由塞缪尔·约翰逊推荐出版，他的小说《几内亚历险记》（1760- 1765）很快在伦敦的文坛上留下了印记，几十年来，这部小说引起了大量的模仿。他的东方故事《阿萨塞斯》是随后的一系列小说和讽刺作品之一;其中包括对美国独立战争以及东印度公司早期进军印度的讽刺参考。小说以横跨中东到印度和中国的地理区域为背景，在一个跨越几个世纪的虚构历史的参照框架内，描述了一个年轻的阿拉伯人塞利姆的冒险和教育，他在小说的结尾被发现是阿尔萨斯，贝特利斯王子。这部作品跨越了这一时期发展起来的许多小说写作体裁，如讽刺小说、东方故事、成长小说，当然还有小说。尽管约翰斯通的作品才华横溢、机智聪明，但他从世纪开始就被忽视了，因为他的作品中充满了典故和主题，而18世纪世纪的小说受到了维多利亚批评家和小说家的青睐，他们把理查森、斯特恩、斯摩莱特和菲尔丁作为他们的小说祖先。这个版本的Arsaces将恢复这18世纪的文字通过一个完整的学术设备，包括详细的关键介绍，笔记和参考书目的活力。作为新的早期爱尔兰小说系列（2010年3月推出）的一部分，它将大大有助于我们了解与英语，爱尔兰文学和东方早期小说相关的主要流派和文学比喻。

This project aims to provide a major new scholarly edition of an eighteenth-century novel by Charles Johnstone, The History of Arsaces, Prince of Betlis (1774), as part of a new series of Early Irish Fiction, c. 1680-1820, from Four Courts Press, Dublin. Johnstone was a much respected - and feared - satirist of his day, described by Sir Walter Scott as 'a prose Juvenal'. His work was first recommended for publication by Samuel Johnson and he quickly made a mark on the literary scene in London with his novel Chrysal; or the Adventures of a Guinea (1760-65), which spawned a host of imitations for decades. His Oriental tale, Arsaces, was among a series of novels and satires that followed; it includes early satirical references to the American War of Independence as well as the East India Company's early forays into India. Set in a geographical area arching across the middle East to India and China, and within a referential framework spanning several centuries of fictionalised history, the novel describes the adventures and education of Selim, a young Arabian, who is discovered by the end of the novel to be Arsaces, Prince of Betlis. The work straddles many genres of fictional writing that were developing in the period such as satire, oriental tale, bildungsroman, and, of course, the novel. Despite the brilliance, wit, and intelligence of his work Johnstone fell into neglect from the nineteenth century as his densely allusive and topically engaged satirical writing was sidelined by the emergence of the eighteenth-century canon of fiction favoured by Victorian critics and novelists who constructed Richardson, Sterne, Smollett, and Fielding as their fictional forebears. This edition of Arsaces will restore the vitality of this eighteenth-century text through a full scholarly apparatus including a detailed critical introduction, notes and bibliography. As part of the new Early Irish Fiction series (launched in March 2010), it will contribute greatly towards our understanding of key genres and literary tropes associated with early fiction in English, Irish literature and the Orient.