An abridgement of Charles Johnstone's 'Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea' with introduction and annotation

Charles Johnstone's novel Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea (1760-65) is possibly the most significant British novel of the eighteenth century of which there is no satisfactory modern edition. Famous in its day, and referred to in standard reference works such as The Dictionary of National Biography and The Oxford English Dictionary, it has nevertheless been annotated only once before--scantily--in an edition that appeared in 1907. And while two other editions of the novel have appeared since then, they are facsimile texts--without annotation.;The present work seeks to remedy this problem. It takes the novel's extensive text--the complete edition runs some two-thousand pages--and abridges it, including the novel's preface and "framing material"; passages referring to real-life personages and historical events; and the novel's most interesting interpolated stories. They are presented with abundant annotation that has been extensively researched, enabling the reader to see how the author drew upon real individuals and events in his work, as well as genres which were popular in his stories. The annotation also clarifies the eighteenth-century idiom and the author's allusions; in addition, it contains references to the author's other works.;The scholarly apparatus does not end there, however. It also includes an extensive introduction, discussing the life of the author, his other works, and the novel itself; a textual commentary and statement of editorial policy; two appendices--Tatler no. 249, The History of a Shilling, by Sir Richard Steele, by which the author of Chrysal was influenced, and a "key," purporting to explain who many of the characters are, from An Olio of Bibliographical and Literary Notes and Memoranda (1814) by William Davis; and a select bibliography.