The spirit of the age : Victorian essays
Gertrude Himmelfarb (Editor)
None of the stereotypes of Victorian England--narrow-minded, inhibited, moralistic, complacent--prepares us for the vitality, variety, and above all extraordinary quality of intellectual life displayed in this volume of essays. Selected and annotated by Gertrude Himmelfarb, a distinguished historian of Victorian thought, the writings address a wide range of subjects--religion, politics, history, science, art, socialism, and feminism--by eminent figures of the era, including Carlyle, Mill, Macaulay, Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray, Newman, Arnold, and Wilde. The selections reflect what Himmelfarb terms "the spirit of the age"--Contentious as well as earnest, given to high aspirations and convictions, and at the same time subject to deep anxieties and doubts. The Victorians, undisputed masters of the long, serious essay, found the genre congenial to the expression of their most compelling and provocative views. This volume offers a representative sampling of essays from the early, middle, and late Victorian periods, each accompanied by an introductory note. Himmelfarb also introduces the volume with two enlightening essays, one on the evolving spirit of the age, and the other on the essay as a genre and on the important periodicals that attracted such a large and engaged audience
essays
1 online resource (vi, 327 pages)
9780300150247, 9780300123302, 0300150245, 0300123302
608183224
The Spirit of the Age
The essay as genre
"Signs of the Times" (1829) / Thomas Carlyle
"The Spirit of the Age" (1831) / John Stuart Mill
"Civil Disabilities of the Jews" (1831) / T.B. Macaulay
"The Snobs of England, by One of Themselves" (1846-47) / W.M. Thackeray
"Demoralization and Total Abstinence" (1849) / Charles Dickens
"Evangelical Teaching: Dr. Cumming" (1855) / George Eliot
"Dull Government," "Average Government," and "Thinking Government" (1856) / Walter Bagehot
"A Few Words on Non-Intervention" (1859) / John Stuart Mill
"The Roots of Honour" (1860) / John Ruskin
"General Answer to Mr. Kingsley" (1864) / John Henry Newman
"Culture and its Enemies" (1857) / Matthew Arnold
"The History of Freedom in Antiquity" (1877) / John E.E.D. Acton
"The Future of Englishwomen: A Reply" (1878) / Millicent Garrett Fawcett
"'Robert Elsmere': The Battle of Belief" (1888) / W.E. Gladstone
"Pages from a Work-Girl's Diary" (1888) / Beatrice Webb
"The Soul of Man under Socialism" (1891) / Oscar Wilde
"Evolution and Ethics" (1893) / T.H. Huxley
Electronic reproduction, [Place of publication not identified], HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010
In English
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archive.org Free eBook from the Internet Archive
openlibrary.org Additional information and access via Open Library