227. (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

The Victorians, who were much taken with “progress,” were also, unsurprisingly, devoted to imagining its opposite: being left behind. In … More

216. (Marcel Proust)

In the sixth volume of Recherche, Proust approaches Tennyson: the section of The Fugitive entitled “Grieving and Forgetting” is an … More

One story of Romanticism (mostly true, however simplified) goes: some poets from 1790s onwards find their freedom in their capacity … More

This post will open with George Eliot and then drift, possibly to return. For a starting point, consider one of … More

On either side of John Keats’ “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” sit Wordsworth’s “Resolution and Independence” and Tennyson’s “Vision of … More

One of the chief differences between eighteenth- and nineteenth-century voices of critical prose is that the former wrote for the … More

Tennyson loved Byron first; the story, propagated by Tennyson’s laureate self, of the young Alfred sobbing at the great poet’s … More

Henry James’ critical perception of others didn’t depend on his seeing himself in their words; but he might have been … More

Apt that an Italian would assist with placing Browning plain before the eyes. Franco Moretti (once again), but this time … More

A short phrase binds an entire ream of Tennyson criticism: “the art of the penultimate.” That Tennyson’s art looks forward … More