From Shakespeare to Pope
An Inquiry into the Causes and Phenomena of the Rise of Classical Poetry in England

A set of lectures on the rise and fall of classical verse forms, first published in book form in 1885.

Edmund Gosse (Author)

9781108054676, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 August 2013

316 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.4 kg

Edmund Gosse (1849–1928), best known for his memoir Father and Son, was one of the foremost literary critics of his day, even though he had not received a university education. Invited to give the prestigious Clark Lectures at Cambridge, he developed the materials for this book, first published in 1885. Gosse sets out his theory of classical poetry, analysing its rise in the seventeenth century in opposition to freer, more romantic blank-verse forms. The book became the subject of a famously excoriating forty-page review by Oxford-educated critic John Churton Collins. While Collins' estimation of the inaccuracies in Gosse's work was largely correct, the review went far beyond constructive appraisal and caused a literary scandal, though Gosse's reputation was not permanently damaged. This book and the controversy it caused form part of the story of English literature as it established itself as a professional academic discipline.

Preface
1. Poetry at the death of Shakespeare
2. Waller and Sacharissa
3. The exiles
4. Davenant and Cowley
5. The reaction
6. The restoration
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]