Dorothy Wordsworth and the Profession of Authorship: A Critical Commentary on Her Letters, Journals, Life Writing, and Poetry
Smith, Kenneth Edward

Description

This study reveals the range of Dorothy Wordsworth’s letters, journals, narratives and poetry. It also examines her severe self-criticism and appeal to readers of subsequent generations.

Reviews

“…[this book] claims, and is able to demonstrate, that as her own self-critical reader Dorothy Wordsworth was able, over a period of forty years, to produce works of lasting lit4erary value that would find an enthusiastic response, if not among her contemporaries, then in future generations of actual readers.”-Prof. Stewart Crehan, Open University

“…a sensitive, nuanced, involving study, which gives an insight both into Dorothy Wordsworth’s range and skill as a writer, and into the ways she has been viewed in relation to Romanticism.”-Prof. Felicity James, University of Leicester

“Many well-chosen quotations from the primary works discussed keep the study grounded, and the reader, in this impressively undigressive and self-effacing book, is always close to the experience of reading Dorothy Wordsworth. I envisage a wide readership…”-Prof. David Chandler, Doshisha University

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword by Stewart Crehan

Preface

Acknowledgements and Textual Note

Abbreviations

xDorothy Wordsworth: A Brief Chronology

1. Introduction: The Practice of Writing
i. Dorothy Wordsworth’s Critical Reputation
ii. Scope and Aims of the Present Study

2. Maintaining a Progress: Letters 1787-1829
i. The Informal art of Letter-writing
ii. Letters as Life-Narratives
iii. Literary and Social Themes in the Letters
iv. Correspondence with Female Friends
v. Correspondence with Male Friends

3. ‘Simplicity & Unity & Life’: The Alfoxden and Grasmere Journals
i. The ‘Unique Style’ of the Early Journals
ii. Twenty-first Century Approaches: Feminist and Ecocritica
iii. Aesthetic Perspectives:The Picturesque, The Beautiful and the Sublime
iv. Dorothy Wordsworth’s Dissenting Vision
v. Three Visions of Nature
vi. The Human Context: Itinerants and Neighbours

4. Moving to the Imagination: Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, 1803
i. A Publishable Tour?
ii. The Picturesque Traveller
iii. Scotland’s ‘Inhabited Solitudes’
iv. A Woman Meeting Women
v. Travel as Active Learning

5. Salutary Passion:
A Narrative Concerning George and Sarah Green
i. Writing to Commission
ii. Family and Community
ii. A Cohesive Narrative

6. Sublime Spectacle: Journal of a Tour on the Continent, 1820
i. A Writerly Authority
ii. Shaping the Narrative
iii. Crossing the Alps — Thirty Years On
iv. Returning the Reader Home

7. Falling Slantward: Shorter Journals 1805-1828
i. The Education of the Senses
ii. An Excursion on the Banks of Ullswater
iii. The Ascent of Scawfell Pike
iv. Journal of my Second Tour in Scotland
v. A Tour of the Isle of Man
vi. The Quest for Unity

8. The Pulse of Life: Poems 1805-1835
i. Setting up as a Poet
ii. Poems of Childhood
iii. Other Women’s Lives
iv. Suffering and Affirmation
v. Memory and Creativity

9. Conclusion: The Profession of Authorship
i. The Sustained Achievement
ii. A Writer of Sensibility
iii. The Art that Conceals Art

Bibliography

Index

ISBN10:  0-7734-1533-5   ISBN13:  978-0-7734-1533-1    Pages:  248    Year:  2011   

Series: hors série Number: 0

Subject Areas:  British - Literature, Poetry Studies, Women's Studies,

Imprint: Edwin Mellen Press

USA List Price: $149.95 UK List Price: £ 99.95  

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