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As the Edwardian era fades into WWI, Cyril Dunstan, a man with a
mysterious past, accepts the post as vicar in a small country town
of Wrynbury. His benefactor and only ally, Anne Gladwyn, repeatedly
attempts to assist the reticent and surly vicar with the task of
reviving the dilapidated village church against all odds. Anne
hopes to find some purpose to her dull and unsatisfying life as
well as solve the mystery of the vicar's history and demeanor.
Their journals and accounts show the tenuous beginnings of a
partnership that turns into a friendship then blossoms into a
passionate emotional tie that could destroy all they have worked
for. In a time when religious and social constructs would never
allow the two to satisfy their desires, they must decide what to
sacrifice in order to have happiness during the tumultuous early
days of the 20th Century.
Renewed arguments over the definition of Romanticism warrant a new
look at the narrative poetry of Sir Walter Scott. Nancy Moore
Goslee's study, the first full treatment of Scott's poems in many
years, will do for his poetry what Judith Wilt's book has done for
his novels. Already a subtle reader of the high Romantics and their
celebrations of the visionary imagination, Goslee draws upon
several recent critical developments for this study of Scott: a
growing tendency among critics of his novels to see romance as a
positive strength, the broader development of narrative theory, and
feminist theory. Like Thomas the Rhymer, the half-historical, half-
mythic minstrel who rides off with the elfin queen, Scott's poems
repeatedly accept the world of romance and yet challenge it, often
wittily, with an array of hermeneutic perspectives upon its
function. The perspectives Goslee considers most fully are the
development of poetry from a communal, oral performance to a
written, published document; the larger, more violent development
of Scottish and British history from feudal to modern cultures; and
the repeated contrast, in that succession of cultures, between the
limited, passive role of most actual women and their active,
powerful role as elfin queen or enchantress in the romance. As if
drawn toward yet simultaneously repelled by such women, Scott
alternates between poems in which enchantresses seem to control
their worlds and those in which women are only pawns, desirable for
the land they inherit. The poems of the latter group are more
realistically historical in plot, turning upon major battles; those
of the former are more romantic and magical. Yet both follow
similar narrative patterns derived from medieval and especially
Renaissance romance. Both, too, show a wandering in more primitive,
violent societies which delays the rational, gradual progress seen
as cultural salvation by Enlightenment historians.
Shelley's drafts and notebooks, which have recently been published
for the first time, are very revealing about the creative processes
behind his poems, and show - through illustrations and doodles - an
unexpectedly vivid visual imagination which contributed greatly to
the effect of his poetry. Shelley's Visual Imagination analyzes
both verbal script and visual sketches in his manuscripts to
interpret the lively personifications of concepts such as
'Liberty', 'Anarchy', or 'Life' in his completed poems. Challenging
the persistent assumption that Shelley's poetry in particular, and
Romantic poetry more generally, reject the visual for expressive
voice or music, this first full-length study of the drafts and
notebooks combines criticism with a focus upon bibliographic codes
and iconic pages. The product of years of close examination of
these remarkable texts, this much-anticipated book will be of great
value for all students of Shelley and all those interested in the
Romantic process of creation.
Shelley's drafts and notebooks, which have recently been published
for the first time, are very revealing about the creative processes
behind his poems, and show - through illustrations and doodles - an
unexpectedly vivid visual imagination which contributed greatly to
the effect of his poetry. Shelley's Visual Imagination analyzes
both verbal script and visual sketches in his manuscripts to
interpret the lively personifications of concepts such as
'Liberty', 'Anarchy', or 'Life' in his completed poems. Challenging
the persistent assumption that Shelley's poetry in particular, and
Romantic poetry more generally, reject the visual for expressive
voice or music, this first full-length study of the drafts and
notebooks combines criticism with a focus upon bibliographic codes
and iconic pages. The product of years of close examination of
these remarkable texts, this much-anticipated book will be of great
value for all students of Shelley and all those interested in the
Romantic process of creation.
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R398
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Discovery Miles 3 300
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