Bringing the 19th-Century Novel to the Present Day

Madeline Porsella and Mabel Capability Taylor will give a talk presenting Mandylion Press, their new project that unearths forgotten novels written by women and weirdos in the long 19th century, with added introductions and visual references. They will offer insight into how they discover, curate, and design obscure and overlooked novels for a new generation, and emphasize the material and experiential qualities of the book in their publications.
Mandylion's new books include an edition of Irish author Ethel Lilian Voynich’s The Gadfly (1897), a maverick tale of uncertain paternity. Because European publishers were anxious about the novel's revolutionary and anti-clerical themes, The Gadfly was first published in the U.S., where it enjoyed modest success. It then appeared in England, going through ten editions from 1897 to 1912, when it fell out of print. Though largely forgotten in its original language, it went on to sell millions of copies in translation in the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. It has been adapted for radio, opera, and ballet.
Mandylion is also issuing an edition of Elizabeth Stoddard’s The Morgesons (1862), a caustic bildungsroman about two sisters growing up in Massachusetts. The book was overshadowed by the Civil War, regained popular attention around 1900, and then was all but forgotten until its rediscovery by feminist scholars in the 1970s. Mandylion’s Morgesons edition features archival research conducted in Stoddard’s papers at the New York Public Library.
Madeline Porsella, cofounder and editor of Mandylion Press, is pursuing a PhD in art history at Yale University. Mabel Capability Taylor, cofounder and editor of Mandylion Press, works in the Capital Projects department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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