DOCSLIB.ORG

Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature by Catherine Cronquist Browning a Dissertation Submitt

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature by Catherine Cronquist Browning a Dissertation Submitt Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature By Catherine Cronquist Browning A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Ian Duncan, Chair Professor Catherine Gallagher Professor Paula Fass Fall 2013 Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature © 2013 by Catherine Cronquist Browning Abstract Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature by Catherine Cronquist Browning Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Berkeley Professor Ian Duncan, Chair Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature analyzes the history of the child as a textual subject, particularly in the British Victorian period. Nineteenth-century literature develops an association between the reader and the child, linking the humanistic self- fashioning catalyzed by textual study to the educational development of children. I explore the function of the reading and readable child subject in four key Victorian genres, the educational treatise, the Bildungsroman, the child fantasy novel, and the autobiography. I argue that the literate children of nineteenth century prose narrative assert control over their self-definition by creatively misreading and assertively rewriting the narratives generated by adults. The early induction of Victorian children into the symbolic register of language provides an opportunity for them to constitute themselves, not as ingenuous neophytes, but as the inheritors of literary history and tradition. The reading child’s mind becomes an anthology, an inherited library of influences, quotations, and textual traditions that he or she reshapes with uniquely imaginative critical force. The first chapter examines the nineteenth-century British reception of John Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Émile. I demonstrate that Locke’s interest in cultivating skillful child readers, mediated through Rousseau’s fictional pupil, informs Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda and Walter Scott’s Waverley. Lockean educational discourse, combined with Rousseauean fictional strategies, serves as foundational for the early nineteenth century development of the novel. Chapter Two addresses childhood reading in the English Bildungsroman, interrogating the relationship between child protagonists who develop their identities through creative misreading and the ways that novels of growth and development shape their readers. Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, and Maggie Tulliver balance their absorption in the reading experience with their imaginative reshaping of their childhood reading, rewriting the books they encounter as they gradually learn to form themselves as subjects. Chapter Three traces the influence of children’s books of natural history on the fantasy novels of Lewis Carroll and Charles Kingsley, with particular attention to the development of curiosity as a desirable trait for child readers. The child protagonists of natural history books, who serve as pedagogical models for child readers, inform the child protagonists of the fantasy novel, who model both successful reception of didactic instruction and comic failure to learn from their books. At the same time, the thematization of optical technology works together with the child’s perspective to 1 embed readerly experience in childhood perception. The final chapter turns to the autobiographical reflections of John Stuart Mill, John Ruskin, and Edmund Gosse, investigating the metaphorical substitution of the acquisition of basic literacy for early childhood development and of canonical literacy for the development of identity over time. Each of these autobiographers defines himself through his ability to cultivate sublime readerly experience through re-reading. For Mill, the mature admiration that his father encourages in childhood reading must give way to a childish delight as an adult reader; for Gosse, his father’s strict religious philosophy is displaced by his enchantment with the sound of poetic language; and for Ruskin, the ability to forget his childhood reading enables him to take the same pleasure in books over and over again. 2 For my father and for my son. i Table of Contents Acknowledgements iii Chapter One Imaginary Pupils: Educational Philosophy in Romantic Fiction 1 Chapter Two “Reading as if for life”: Bookish Children in the Bildungsroman 33 Chapter Three Reading Curiosity: Natural History in the Victorian Child Fantasy Novel 62 Chapter Four Autobiography as Anthology: Re-Reading Victorian Childhoods 90 Bibliography 113 ii Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to my advisor, Ian Duncan, whose seemingly limitless knowledge is matched only by his unbounded patience. His meticulous reading and detailed feedback helped me clarify and refine my ideas more thoroughly than I ever hoped to do. In addition, his unfailing generosity and constant availability supported me throughout the writing process. I am extremely fortunate to have had Catherine Gallagher as my second reader for this project. Her thoughtful commentary has contributed greatly to the quality of this dissertation. I am truly thankful for her time and involvement. I must also thank my outside reader, Paula Fass, whose pioneering work in the history of childhood has made this project possible. I am grateful for her encouragement, organization, and willingness to entertain a very different disciplinary perspective from her own. Many faculty members beyond my official dissertation committee have been supportive of me and influential for this project; I am particularly grateful to Susan Schweik, who directed an independent study on children’s literature that first sparked my interest in The Water-Babies, and who served as an examiner on my qualifying exam committee and as my second reader at an earlier stage of the project. I must also acknowledge Dan Blanton, Steve Goldsmith, and Kent Puckett for many enlightening conversations on nineteenth-century literature, Elizabeth Abel for facilitating an excellent prospectus workshop and encouraging me at critical moments in my graduate career, Oliver Arnold for helping me learn how to talk about my project, and Victoria Frede for serving on my prospectus committee. Kathleen Donegan, Nadia Ellis, and Eric Falci provided me with excellent mentorship in my final year of graduate school and were willing to share the intimate details of their own writing processes. Elisa Tamarkin encouraged me in what seemed my darkest hour and smoothed my path to completion. I am thankful for the support and feedback of my graduate colleagues Ruth Baldwin, Ben Cannon, Dan Clinton, Marisa Knox, Gina Patnaik, and Monica Soare, who have helped me slowly tease out my ideas over many years of conversation and writing. Several discussion groups contributed to my thinking, including the Nineteenth Century and Beyond British Cultural Studies Working Group, the Children’s Literature Working Group, and the “Victorian Supper Club.” Among the many people who made these discussions stimulating and enlightening, I must especially thank Mark Allison and Rae Greiner, who encouraged me during the early years of my graduate career; Natalia Cecire, Arcadia Falcone, and Andrea Lankin, whose interest in critical approaches to children’s literature strongly influenced my reading of the child fantasy novel; and Charity Ketz and Ian Thomas-Bignami, who read and commented on an early draft of my first chapter. In the final months of writing, I received invaluable support both intellectual and practical from Rebecca Munson and Claude Willan. I would also like to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Berkeley English Department, the Center for British Studies, and the Berkeley Graduate Division. Finally, I must thank my husband, Jonathan Browning, whose faith and love sustained me through eight years of graduate school. iii Chapter 1 Imaginary Pupils: Educational Philosophy in Romantic Fiction Je ne sais comment j’appris à lire; je ne me souviens que de mes premières lectures et de leur effet sur moi: c’est le temps d’où je date sans interruption la conscience de moi-même. – Rousseau, Confessions Introduction Studies of children in literature tend to identify a moment of origin at which childhood begins to interest authors, and children begin to interest publishers – a moment before which children’s voices are rarely represented, and after which child readers and characters appear everywhere. This obsession with the genesis of literary childhood derives largely from Phillipe Ariès’s groundbreaking L’enfant et la vie familiale sous l’Ancien Régime (1960),1 which argues that modern childhood came into existence in the late seventeenth century and that Western artistic and cultural representations of childhood as we now define it hardly existed before that time. In recent decades, scholars have responded to Ariès’s controversial thesis by identifying manifestations of modern childhood in earlier periods, particularly in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.2 Nevertheless, childhood studies has not left Ariès behind; critics continue to search for the moment of origin he theorized, though its precise situation – in the late seventeenth, the eighteenth, or the early nineteenth century – is hotly debated. Moments often cited as originary include the publication of John Newbery’s Little Pretty Pocket Book in
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Études Irlandaises, 34.2 | 2009, « Figures De L'intellectuel En Irlande » [En Ligne], Mis En Ligne Le 02 Février 2012, Consulté Le 22 Septembre 2020
    Études irlandaises 34.2 | 2009 Figures de l'intellectuel en Irlande Representations of the Intellectual in Ireland Maurice Goldring et Carle Bonafous-Murat (dir.) Édition électronique URL : http://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/1456 DOI : 10.4000/etudesirlandaises.1456 ISSN : 2259-8863 Éditeur Presses universitaires de Caen Édition imprimée Date de publication : 30 septembre 2009 ISBN : 978-2-7535-0982-5 ISSN : 0183-973X Référence électronique Maurice Goldring et Carle Bonafous-Murat (dir.), Études irlandaises, 34.2 | 2009, « Figures de l'intellectuel en Irlande » [En ligne], mis en ligne le 02 février 2012, consulté le 22 septembre 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/1456 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ etudesirlandaises.1456 Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 22 septembre 2020. Études irlandaises est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale - Partage dans les Mêmes Conditions 4.0 International. 1 SOMMAIRE Introduction Maurice Goldring et Carle Bonafous-Murat Maurice Goldring et Carle Bonafous-Murat (éd.) Richard Lovell Edgeworth, or the paradoxes of a “philosophical” life Isabelle Bour A Panacea for the Nation : Berkeley’s Tar-water and Irish Domestic Development Scott Breuninger “Is that the word ?” Samuel Beckett and the Port-Royal Philosophy of Language Mélanie Foehn Aristotle’s concept of energeia in Autumn Journal by Louis MacNeice, poet, classics scholar and intellectual Mélanie White Emblems of his early adversity
    [Show full text]
  • Chance and Contingency in the Evolution of Man, Mind and Morals in Charles Kingsley's W
    Journal of the History of Biology Ó Springer 2012 DOI 10.1007/s10739-012-9345-5 Monkeys into Men and Men into Monkeys: Chance and Contingency in the Evolution of Man, Mind and Morals in Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies PIERS J. HALE Department of the History of Science University of Oklahoma 601 Elm Ave, Rm. 610 Norman, OK 73019 USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. The nineteenth century theologian, author and poet Charles Kingsley was a notable populariser of Darwinian evolution. He championed Darwin’s cause and that of honesty in science for more than a decade from 1859 to 1871. Kingsley’s interpretation of evolution shaped his theology, his politics and his views on race. The relationship between men and apes set the context for Kingsley’s consideration of these issues. Having defended Darwin for a decade in 1871 Kingsley was dismayed to read Darwin’s account of the evolution of morals in Descent of Man. He subsequently distanced himself from Darwin’s conclusions even though he remained an ardent evolutionist until his death in 1875. Keywords: Charles Kingsley, Evolution, Hipocampus minor, Darwin, British Associa- tion, Water Babies, Nineteenth century, Race, Morant Bay, Eyre affair, Thomas Huxley, Descent of Man, Origin of Species, Biology, England, Politics, Theology, Science and religion Jack (who has been reading passages from the ‘‘Descent of Man’’ to the wife whom he adores, but loves to tease). ‘‘SO YOU SEE, MARY, BABY IS DESCENDED FROM A HAIRY QUADRUPED, WITH POINTED EARS AND A TAIL. WE ALL ARE!’’ Mary. ‘‘SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, JACK! I’M NOT DES- CENDED FROM ANYTHING OF THE KIND, I BEG TO SAY; AND BABY TAKES AFTER ME.
    [Show full text]
  • Engraving of a Rhinoceros, Originally Produced in 1515
    Bestiaries St John’s holds two of the ca. 90 surviving manuscript bestiaries in Latin. Both are displayed here. These volumes were often, although not always, highly illustrated listings of beasts, birds, and sometimes rocks, combining folklore, classical learning and Christian allegory. The text was extracted from any one of several compendia of animal lore cited by classical authors, the oldest being the anonymous Physiologus of the 2nd century AD, but both examples from St John’s belong to a group which draw on the book 12 of a major early medieval encyclopaedic work, Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, dating to the 630s. The production of bestiaries didn’t really get under way until the 10th century, but continued throughout the high Middle Ages. Although the lore bestiaries drew on was often popular, and sometimes widely believed, these were not primarily zoological statements, rather works of Christian spiritual allegory, in which narrative and symbolism played a major part. Thus the pelican is shown tearing at its breast in order to feed its young, in a parallel with the suffering and redemptive nature of Christ. The high status of the manuscripts, demonstrated by their lavish illuminations, also militates against the notion that lay people had easy access to them, and hence that they were manuals of scientific or practical knowledge. Instead they tended to be owned by religious houses, as both the manuscripts displayed here were, and furnished material and inspiration for sermons and religious life. The Lion 13th c. Bestiary from York Uniformly placed at the beginning of the listing, owing to its status as the “King of Beasts”, the Lion appears here in a lavish 13th century manuscript formerly owned by the Priory of Holy Trinity, York.
    [Show full text]
  • The Armstrong Browning Library Newsletter God Is the Perfect Poet
    The Armstrong Browning Library Newsletter God is the perfect poet. – Paracelsus by Robert Browning NUMBER 51 SPRING/SUMMER 2007 WACO, TEXAS Ann Miller to be Honored at ABL For more than half a century, the find inspiration. She wrote to her sister late Professor Ann Vardaman Miller of spending most of the summer there was connected to Baylor’s English in the “monastery like an eagle’s nest Department—first as a student (she . in the midst of mountains, rocks, earned a B.A. in 1949, serving as an precipices, waterfalls, drifts of snow, assistant to Dr. A. J. Armstrong, and a and magnificent chestnut forests.” master’s in 1951) and eventually as a Master Teacher of English herself. So Getting to Vallombrosa was not it is fitting that a former student has easy. First, the Brownings had to stepped forward to provide a tribute obtain permission for the visit from to the legendary Miller in Armstrong the Archbishop of Florence and the Browning Library, the location of her Abbot-General. Then, the trip itself first campus office. was arduous—it involved sitting in a wine basket while being dragged up the An anonymous donor has begun the cliffs by oxen. At the top, the scenery process of dedicating a stained glass was all the Brownings had dreamed window in the Cox Reception Hall, on of, but disappointment awaited Barrett the ground floor of the library, to Miller. Browning. The monks of the monastery The Vallombrosa Window in ABL’s Cox Reception The hall is already home to five windows, could not be persuaded to allow a woman Hall will be dedicated to the late Ann Miller, a Baylor professor and former student of Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/89q0q765 Author Browning, Catherine Cronquist Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature By Catherine Cronquist Browning A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Ian Duncan, Chair Professor Catherine Gallagher Professor Paula Fass Fall 2013 Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature © 2013 by Catherine Cronquist Browning Abstract Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature by Catherine Cronquist Browning Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Berkeley Professor Ian Duncan, Chair Bower of Books: Reading Children in Nineteenth-Century British Literature analyzes the history of the child as a textual subject, particularly in the British Victorian period. Nineteenth-century literature develops an association between the reader and the child, linking the humanistic self- fashioning catalyzed by textual study to the educational development of children. I explore the function of the reading and readable child subject in four key Victorian genres, the educational treatise, the Bildungsroman, the child fantasy novel, and the autobiography. I argue that the literate children of nineteenth century prose narrative assert control over their self-definition by creatively misreading and assertively rewriting the narratives generated by adults. The early induction of Victorian children into the symbolic register of language provides an opportunity for them to constitute themselves, not as ingenuous neophytes, but as the inheritors of literary history and tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Sir Francis Beaufort Papers Addenda
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8gm8cxr No online items Sir Francis Beaufort papers addenda Finding aid prepared by Gayle M. Richardson. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Manuscripts Department The Huntington Library 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2191 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org © 2016 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Sir Francis Beaufort papers mssFBA 1-28 1 addenda Descriptive Summary Title: Sir Francis Beaufort papers addenda Dates: 1797-1858 Collection Number: mssFBA 1-28 Creator OR Collector: Beaufort, Francis, Sir, 1774-1857 Extent: 37 items in one box Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts Department 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2191 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org Abstract: Correspondence, documents, photographs, poems and wills relating to Sir Francis Beaufort, Maria Edgeworth and the Beaufort and Edgeworth families. Language of Material: The records are in English. Access Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services. Publication Rights The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Sir Francis Beaufort papers addenda, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Acquisition Information Purchased from Francis Beaufort-Palmer, June 4, 1971. Biographical Note Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort: hydrographer of the British Navy and member of the Royal Society, creator of the wind force scale and weather notation coding, and author of Karamania, or, A brief description of the south coast of Asia-Minor and of the remains of antiquity (1817).
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of Muscular Christianity in Victorian Britain and Beyond
    ISSN: 1522-5658 http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-2.html The Development of Muscular Christianity in Victorian Britain and Beyond Nick J. Watson York St. John’s College, University of Leeds Stuart Weir Christians in Sport, UK Stephen Friend York St. John’s College, University of Leeds Introduction [1] The development of Muscular Christianity in the second half of the nineteenth century has had a sustained impact on how Anglo-American Christians view the relationship between sport, physical fitness, and religion. It has been argued that the birth of Muscular Christianity in Victorian Britain forged a strong “. link between Christianity and sport” that “. has never been broken” (Crepeau: 2). The emergence of neo-muscular Christian groups during the latter half of the twentieth century (Putney) and the promotion of sport in Catholic institutions, such as the University of Notre Dame, can be seen as a direct consequence of Victorian Muscular Christianity. Modern Evangelical Protestant organizations, such as Christians in Sport (CIS) in England and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) in the U.S., have resurrected many of the basic theological principles used to promote sport and physical fitness in Victorian Britain. [2] The basic premise of Victorian Muscular Christianity was that participation in sport could contribute to the development of Christian morality, physical fitness, and “manly” character. The term was first adopted in the 1850s to portray the characteristics of Charles Kingsley (1819- 1875) and Thomas Hughes’ (1822-1896) novels. Both Kingsley and Hughes were keen sportsmen and advocates of the strenuous life. Fishing, hunting, and camping were Kingsley’s favorite pastimes, which he saw as a “counterbalance” to “.
    [Show full text]
  • Experimental Pharmacology and Therapeutic Innovation in the Eighteenth Century
    -e: EXPERIMENTAL PHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTIC INNOVATION IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY by ANDREAS-HOLGER MAEHLE A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London University College London 1996 ProQuest Number: 10017185 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10017185 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT In the historiography of pharmacology and therapeutics, the 18th century is regarded as a period of transition from traditional, Galenistic materia medica to the beginnings of modern, experimental drug research. Ackerknecht (1973) characterized the pharmacotherapy of this period as a "chaotic mixture of chemiatric and Galenistic practices", yet acknowledged an "increasing tendency toward empiricism, partly even true experimentalism". This thesis explores this transitional phase for the first time in depth, examining the relations between pharmacological experimentation, theory-building, and therapeutic practice. Furthermore, ethical aspects are highlighted. The general introduction discusses the secondary literature and presents the results of a systematic study of pharmacological articles in relevant 18th-century periodicals. The identified main areas of contemporary interest, the spectrum of methods applied, and the composition of the authorship are described and interpreted.
    [Show full text]
  • Select Bibliography
    SELECT BIbLIOGRAPHY Aesop. Aesop’s Fables. With instructive morals and refections, abstracted from all party considerations, adapted to all capacities; and design’d to promote religion, morality, and universal benevolence (London: J. F. and C. Rivington, T. Longman, B. Law, W. Nicol, G. G. J. and J. Robinson, T. Cadell, R. Balwin, S. Hayes, W. Goldsmith, W. Lowndes, and Power and Co., ?1775). Aesop. Bewick’s Select Fables, In Three Parts (Newcastle: Thomas Saint, 1784). Aesop. Old Friends in a New Dress; or, Select Fables of Aesop, in verse (London: Darton & Harvey, 1809). Aikin, John, and Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Evenings at Home; or, the Juvenile Budget Opened. Consisting of a Variety of Miscellaneous Pieces, for the Instruction and Amusement of Young Persons (London: J. Johnson, 1792). Alberti, Samuel J. M. M. ‘The Museum Affect: Visiting Collections of Anatomy and Natural History’, in Aileen Fyfe and Bernard Lightman (eds), Science in the Marketplace: Nineteenth-Century Sites and Experiences (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), pp. 371–403. Allen, David Elliston. The Naturalist in Britain: A Social History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, [1976] 1994). Allman, George James. ‘Critical Notes on the New Zealand Hydroida’, Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, 8 (1875): 298–302. Allman, George James. ‘Description of Australian, Cape and other Hydroida, mostly new, from the collection of Miss H. Gatty’, Journal of the Linnean Society, 19 (1885): 132–61. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 277 Switzerland AG 2021 L. Talairach, Animals, Museum Culture and Children’s Literature in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72527-3 278 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Allman, George James.
    [Show full text]
  • The Absentee
    The Absentee Maria Edgeworth The Absentee Table of Contents The Absentee..............................................................................................................................................................1 Maria Edgeworth............................................................................................................................................1 i The Absentee Maria Edgeworth NOTES ON 'THE ABSENTEE' In August 1811, we are told, she wrote a little play about landlords and tenants for the children of her sister, Mrs. Beddoes. Mr. Edgeworth tried to get the play produced on the London boards. Writing to her aunt, Mrs. Ruxton, Maria says, 'Sheridan has answered as I foresaw he must, that in the present state of this country the Lord Chamberlain would not license THE ABSENTEE; besides there would be a difficulty in finding actors for so many Irish characters.' The little drama was then turned into a story, by Mr. Edgeworth's advice. Patronage was laid aside for the moment, and THE ABSENTEE appeared in its place in the second part of TALES OF FASHIONABLE LIFE. We all know Lord Macaulay's verdict upon this favourite story of his, the last scene of which he specially admired and compared to the ODYSSEY. [Lord Macaulay was not the only notable admirer of THE ABSENTEE. The present writer remembers hearing Professor Ruskin on one occasion break out in praise and admiration of the book. 'You can learn more by reading it of Irish politics,' he said, 'than from a thousand columns out of blue−books.'] Mrs. Edgeworth tells us that much of it was written while Maria was suffering a misery of toothache. Miss Edgeworth's own letters all about this time are much more concerned with sociabilities than with literature. We read of a pleasant dance at Mrs.
    [Show full text]
  • Charlotte Mary Yonge and Her Circle
    Proc Hampsh Field Club Archaeol Soc, 49,1993, 195-205 COLLEGE STREET, HURSLEY AND OTTERBOURNE: CHARLOTTE MARY YONGE AND HER CIRCLE By JULIA COURTNEY ABSTRACT though now converted into flats) in August 1823 and throughout her long life she rarely left the Charlotte Mary Tonge (1823—1901) was a highly successful village for any length of time. She consciously novelist and a prolific writer of religious, educational and rejected what she saw as the 'whirl' of London, historical works. Although proud of her family's Devonshire and went abroad only once. Apart from a solitary origins she was deeply attached to her home village of trip to France her furthest ventures were a Olterbourne, where she lived throughout her seventy-seven years.journe y to Ireland for a family wedding in 1857, A devoted High Anglican Churchmoman, Charlotte Tonge and numerous visits to Chester, Devon and the deliberately cut herself off from the social and intellectual influences of the London literary scene. Yet during her most Isle of Wight. productive years she was part of a lively local cultural circle Yet by the time she was thirty Charlotte Yonge which included the nationally revered religious leader John Keble was a nationally known figure, author of a best as well as Dr George Moberly, reforming Headmaster of selling novel eagerly read by an enthusiastic Winchester College, and the Hampshire grandee Sir William public which included the highest in the land: Heatlicote. After this circle broke up in the mid-1860s Charlotte Queen Victoria was later to discuss Yonge novels Tonge continued to write and to take an increasing part in the in her letters to the Princess Royal.
    [Show full text]
  • "Problem" MWF 2 Cross Listed with AADS4410 Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement in the Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B
    SPOTLIGHT ON ENGLISH ELECTIVES SPRING 2018 ENGL2482 African American Literature and the "Problem" MWF 2 Cross listed with AADS4410 Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois famously observes that to be black is to serially confront a question: "How does it feel to be a problem?" This course undertakes a survey of African American Literature as an ongoing mediation on the "problem" of being black, from the advent of racial slavery through to its contemporary afterlives. Reading broadly across a black literary tradition spanning four centuries and multiple genres, we will consider how black writers represent the "problem" of being black not merely as an unwelcome condition to be overcome, but an ethical orientation to be embraced over against an anti-black world that is itself a problem. Jonathan Howard ENGL3331 Victorian Inequality MWF 11 Fulfills the pre-1900 requirement. From “Dickensian” workhouses to shady financiers, Victorian literature has provided touchstones for discussions of inequality today. This course will investigate how writers responded to the experience of inequality in Victorian Britain during an era of revolution and reaction, industrialization and urbanization, and empire building. Considering multiple axes of inequality, we will explore topics such as poverty and class conflict, social mobility, urbanization, gender, education, Empire, and labor. We will read novels, poetry, and nonfiction prose; authors include Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Elizabeth Gaskell; Charles Dickens; Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Mary Prince; Arthur Morrison; and Thomas Hardy. Aeron Hunt ENGL4003 Shakespeare and Performance T TH 12 Fulfills pre-1700 requirement Although Shakespeare became “literature,” people originally encountered Shakespeare’s plays as popular entertainment.
    [Show full text]