History of English Literature, Volume 4: Early and Mid-Victorian Prose and Poetry, 1832–1870

Product Description


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‘Franco Marucci’s History of English Literature is unique in its field. There is no other book that combines such erudition and authority in such a compact format. An indispensable work of reference.’
― J. B. Bullen, Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College, Oxford
History of English Literature is a comprehensive, eight-volume survey of English literature from the Middle Ages to the early twenty-first century. This reference work provides insightful and often revisionary readings of core texts in the English literary canon. Richly informative analyses are framed by the biographical, historical and intellectual context for each author.
Volume 4 begins with a focus on the pivotal function of religion in the mid-nineteenth century and explores the resulting oscillation between Romantic escape, sceptical solipsism and social responsibility in the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Tennyson, Browning, Clough and Matthew Arnold. The aegis of religion was only broken by the advent of Pre-Raphaelitism. This trajectory is reflected in a series of well-known enigmatic masterworks by the Rossettis.
In addition to these key works, space is also devoted to often neglected poets and poetry such as Patmore and Adelaide Procter, nonsense verse and Lear’s limericks, the dialect poet William Barnes, and the Victorian ‘poetesses’. Finally, the author rescues from critical oblivion the Spasmodics, honours the minor prose masterpiece Dreamthorp by Alexander Smith, and registers the revival of drama with Taylor, Boucicault and Robertson.


Review


«Franco Marucci's History of English Literature is unique in its field. There is no other book that combines such erudition and authority in such a compact format. An indispensable work of reference.» (J.B. Bullen, Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College, Oxford)



Praise for the Italian edition: «Franco Marucci's Italian-language History of English Literature comes from one of the major Italian scholars in the field, and displays a quite extraordinary range and diversity. Here is information in depth for almost every taste and theoretical viewpoint, with ample guidance for any Italian seeking to find a path through the complexities of a literature in the process of turning itself from national debates into a world-wide culture. An extraordinary achievement!» (Stephen Prickett, Regius Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Glasgow, and an Honorary Professor of the University of Kent, at Canterbury)


«Professor Marucci's achievement is a beautiful and most useful one. After affording a store-house of historical and bibliographical information concerning XIXth century English literature, he now - [like] a new Virgil! - guides us through modern times and even the unexplored bushes of contemporary literary production. Not only Italian-speaking scholars, but as well most of «Romanist» readers will be able to derive advantage from his interpretation of our nearest culture.» (Dominique Millet-Gérard, Professeur de Littérature français et comparée á l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne)


«The History of English Literature Franco Marucci is completing in Italian is a unique enterprise. A massive seven-volume work, it is the opus of a single scholar of renown in his country and at home with everything English, and a splendidly argued narrative of the long journey of literature in the English language in all its main thoroughfares and byroads from the times of Beowulf to the end of the second millennium. It contains new canons and quite a few surprises, and I would have no hesitation in recommending it to my British and American colleagues.» (Piero Boitani, FBA, Professor at Sapienza University of Rome)


About the Author



Franco Marucci is a former Professor of English at the Universities of Siena, Florence and Venice Ca' Foscari. His publications include Il senso interrotto.