Description
Book SynopsisPublished in 1850, In Memoriam won its author the Poet Laureateship of Britain and received widespread attention from critics and reviewers, as well as from ordinary readers. The poem was written in memory of Tennyson’s close friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly in 1833; it became an unofficial devotional manual for mourners, including Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert. The poem’s scope goes beyond individual grief, however, to the development and extinction of species, audaciously exploring history, evolution, and God’s relationship with humanity. Its formal beauty and emotional resonance make In Memoriam as compelling today as it was for nineteenth-century readers.
Matthew Rowlinson’s introduction traces the poem’s composition history and places it in the context of Tennyson’s personal and intellectual development. Historical appendices include writings by Arthur Hallam, Victorian fiction on courtship and marriage, and materials on natural history and evolution.
Trade Review“This is a very helpful edition which will be of great value to the student reader. Rowlinson’s introduction, notes and appendices supply the reader with intelligent and useful contextual information and offer an engaging, thoroughly informed guide to the ways in which the poem has been read since first publication.” — Kirstie Blair, University of Stirling
“This edition is remarkably comprehensive for such a slim book, including a six-part appendix followed by a reliable and select bibliography, setting good foundations for further reading. The poem’s achievement and legacy are convincingly demonstrated by the fascinating range of appendixed primary sources, including selections from the writings of Arthur Henry Hallam, natural history, Victorian courtship fiction, the poetic sequence form, reviews of In Memoriam, and an extract from Hallam’s Tennyson’s Memoir. These groupings not only prove the central position of primary resources in the valuation of the poem, but establish for undergraduate readers a firm foundation for reference and inference.” — John Francis Davies, Tennyson Research Bulletin
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson: A Brief Chronology
- A Note on the Text
- "In Memoriam"
- Appendix A: Writings of Arthur Hallam
- 1. Meditative Fragment 1 [addressed to J.M. Gaskell]
- 2. Sonnet [After first meeting Emily Tennyson]
- 3. Sonnet [The garden trees]
- 4. Translations from Dante, La Vita Nuova
- 5. From "On Sympathy"
- Appendix B: Writings on Natural History, Taxonomy, and Evolution, 1802-1844
- 1. From William Paley, Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity
- 2. From Charles Lyell, The Principles of Geology
- 3. From William Whewell, The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon their History
- 4. From Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
- Appendix C: Victorian Courtship and Marriage in Fiction
- 1. From Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery
- 2. From Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
- 3. From Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford
- Appendix D: The Poetic Sequence, 1827-1854
- 1. From John Keble, The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holidays Throughout the Year
- 2. From Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese
- 3. From Coventry Patmore, The Angel in the House: The Betrothal
- Appendix E: Reviews of In Memoriam, 1850-1855
- 1. From The Examiner (8 June 1850) [probably by John Forster)
- 2. From The Literary Gazette (15 June 1850)
- 3. From The North British Review (August 1850)
- 4. From The British Quarterly Review (August 1850)
- 5. From The Eclectic Review (September 1850)
- 6. From The English Review (September 1850)
- 7. From Fraser's Magazine (September 1850) [Charles Kingsley]
- 8. From The Times (28 November 1851) [possibly by Gerard Manley Hopkins]
- 9. From The Edinburgh Review (October 1855) [Coventry Patmore]
- Appendix F: From Hallam Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son
- Select Bibliography
