Rereading Walter Pater

This 1997 book is a rereading of the work of Walter Pater, a pivotal figure in nineteenth-century culture.

William F. Shuter (Author)

9780521019811, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 September 2005

176 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 0.9 cm, 0.282 kg

"...Shuter's book makes a solid contribution to Pater scholarship. ...Shuter's effort to bring newly available material to bear on well-known texts points to valuable avenues for future research." Matthew Potolsky, Victorian Studies

Walter Pater is increasingly gaining recognition as a pivotal figure in nineteenth-century culture. His later work is often regarded as an effort to distance himself from his earlier, more controversial texts. In this 1997 book, William F. Shuter argues that Pater's writings demand a twofold reading. Shuter first offers an account of the texts in the order in which they were written, paying close attention to the changes in Pater's thought and interests over time; he then returns to the earlier texts, showing how the later work serves, paradoxically, as an introduction to the earlier. Drawing extensively on unpublished manuscript material, Shuter reveals that Pater himself authorised rereadings of his work in an effort to rewrite his own literary past and the past of his culture. This perspective on Pater's work uncovers patterns of continuity and anticipation that decisively alter our understanding of Pater and his writings.

Introduction: an initial reading
1. The periegetic critic and the imaginative sense of place
2. The retrojective apologist
3. Heraclitus, Hegel, and Plato
4. The dubious academic
5. Visiting the dead
Conclusion: rereading, revising, and reshuffling.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK]