Synopses & Reviews
The poets of the mid-nineteenth century lived in a time of "nation-building." The Realms of Verse brings that political and intellectual context to life. It shows that the Italian Risorgimento raised questions about community and individual liberty which were especially problematic for subjects of the multi-national United Kingdom, and argues that these questions are at the heart of the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Tennyson, and Clough. Their long poems characteristically tell stories about marriage, investigating the symbolic and actual interactions between that personal union and national unity. Their verse as a whole exploits correspondences between formal control and political government, and is alert to its own role in fostering a common culture. Historically detailed, theoretically astute, critically nimble, and stylishly written, The Realms of Verse is the most far-reaching reassessment of Victorian poetry to have been published in recent years.
Review
"Matthew Reynolds chooses what may at first seem to be an odd angle from which to approach Victorian poetry, but he makes it work. He begins with Victorian interest in Italy—and not the romantic Italy of the Romantic poets, but the Italy of practical politics, the Italy men like Garibaldi were trying to create, as the issue of unification dominated Italian politics in the 19th century. Reynolds shows how fascinated the Victorians were in the Italian Risorgimento, which resonated in all sorts of ways with their own political concerns. Tennyson even met with Garibaldi when he visited England in 1864. Reynolds goes on to show convincingly that this interest in Italy shaped a good deal of Victorian poetry—not just the works of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (who actually lived in Italy) but major works by Tennyson as well. After reading this book, Victorian scholars will never be able to read familiar poems like Aurora Leigh and 'Andrea del Sarto' the same way again." Reviewed by Frank E. Grizzard, Jr., Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"Reynolds is an exceptionally incisive and lucid critic, keenly attentive to formal dynamics...but also deft in summarizing the distinctive political engagements of each poet.... This is an extremely important study, one of the best I know on the large ambitions of Victorian poetry."--James Eli Adams, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
"That's Realms of Verse, not Reams, don't worry--though among the many virtues of this broad-minded, sure-handed book is the extent of ground it commands. Matthew Reynolds provides substantial new readings of the major long poems of mid-nineteenth-century Britain, in welcome technical detail and in persuasive political context.... Reynolds sets a high standard for the new century's work in our area of literary studies. May he find able emulators soon."--Victorian Studies
"The best general book of criticism on Victorian Poetry altogether in the last decade."--Essays in Criticism
"The best critics, like the best poets (in Browning's words) 'impart the gift of seeing to the rest'. Reynolds has this gift of seeing and imparting."--Daniel Karlin, Times Literary Supplement
"Reynolds is a critic of great gifts; the book is full of passages beautifully read."--Seams Perry, Tennyson Research Bulletin
Synopsis
Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Tennyson, and Clough lived and wrote in a time of "nation-building." The Realms of Verse brings that political and intellectual context to life, and traces its influence on the narratives, language, and form of their poetry. Theoretically astute and historically detailed, this study is the most far-reaching reassessment of Victorian poetry to have been published in recent years.
Table of Contents
Orientations
Poetry and its times
Poets and nations
Three types of unity
The inspiration of Italy
From elegy to prophecy
The scope of narrative: Aurora Leigh
Repulsive Clough
Browning's alien pages
Tennyson's Britain
Ever-broadening Britain
The empire of the imagiantion
The married state: Idylls of the King
Coda: After the realms of verse
Works cited
Index