Product Description

Wordsworth and the Victorians tells the story of the flowering of Wordsworth's reputation and influence in the Victorian era. Stephen Gill uses a range of anecdotal and biographical material to illustrate the various ways in which Wordsworth's reputation was diffused. The transmission of the Wordsworthian spirit by poets and novelists such as Matthew Arnold and George Eliot is examined, as is the personal testimony of critics, scholars, and ordinary readers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3256344 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 366 pages

Review

"It is a book of great learning....it remains consistently appreciative in an exemplary way, seriously attempting to enter Victorian taste and to re-imagine the validity of styles of reading that can seem wholly alien."--The Wordsworth Circle

About the Author

Stephen Gill is Professor of English Literature and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. He is the author of William Wordsworth: A Life (OUP, 1989), and editor of William Wordsworth in the Oxford Authors series (OUP, 1984).

Customer Reviews

Gill's Wordsworth and the Victorians
This is a much needed book that shows Wordsworth's influence on Victorian writers and other artists both before and after his death. Gill has painstakingly researched his subject and shows that the later Victorians looked to WW for inspiration and guidance but did not revere him as a god. Their assessment of Wordsworth helped to propel interest in the poet in the 20thC. This book has been long in the making and is a fabulous contribution to Victorian studies and Wordsworth studies.