Glanville, Priscilla J.
About the author: Dr. Priscilla Glanville teaches literature and composition at the College for Lifelong Learning, Portsmouth. Although her publishing and teaching history spans a diverse mix of pedagogy and British and American literature, her particular field of interest is 19th-century British literature and cultural studies. She received her PhD from the University of Southern Florida.
2002 0-7734-7134-0This study explores the major artistic and cultural influences that gave life to, and informed the reception of, the work Tennyson considered the zenith of his poetic career: Maud. It examines in depth its relationship with the work Tennyson himself cited as its ancestor: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as well as the Spasmodic closet dramas to which is has been linked, and with Pre-Raphaelitism. “It is a scholarly presentation. . . . Annotated bibliographies are a godsend for researchers. Ms. Glanville’s annotated bibliography of Maud scholarship from 1855 to the present (chapter 4) should be a must for any serious Tennyson researcher who is interested in Tennyson’s monodrama, containing as it does over 260 annotated items, including sometimes overlooked master theses and doctoral dissertations. And. . . rich in contemporaneous periodical reviews.. . . It should be a sought-for source for serious Tennyson scholars.” – William H. Scheuerle “When he called Maud ‘a little Hamlet’ Tennsyon riddled the world; Professor Glanville is the first to appreciate the deeper meaning of the puzzle and bring it to a full solution. She draws out a host of thematic, plot and character parallels and weaves a highly convincing reading whereby the shifting narrative persona identifies alternately with the characters of Hamlet, Laertes, and Horatio. Maud is truly Hamlet in a Victorian rendering, Glanville reveals, with overtones of modern war, world-weariness, Darwinism, and Social Darwinism. This book makes a compelling argument for the validation long overdue of a work that is full of beauty and complexity.” – Nancy Jane Tyson
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