Tennyson and Goethe’s Faust
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About this book
- Offers an abundance of fresh insights into Tennyson’s poetry
- Makes a major contribution to the study of Goethe’s influence in Britain
- Draws on detailed research into manuscripts and other primary sources
- Combines Victorian literature, Romanticism and German studies
Tennyson’s interest in Goethe’s masterpiece began around 1824. It reached a remarkable level of intensity in 1833–34, and continued, intermittently, until 1855. The powerful influence that Faust exerted on his writings was mediated, most notably, by the translations of Abraham Hayward (1801–84), and it was often combined with that of a number of closely related works, by authors including Schiller, Byron, Shelley and Carlyle. This book reveals for the first time that Goethe’s masterpiece is a presence in at least two dozen of Tennyson’s poems, including several that are part of the canon of British literature.
Reviews
An immensely readable, inspired and inspiring book.
Baynes’s book will be indispensable for future editors and annotators of Tennyson.
An admirably thorough work of scholarship.
An outstanding work of literary-historical scholarship
Brilliantly researched and cogently argued. A rare and valuable achievement, both supremely scholarly and eminently readable.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements Abbreviations Preface
Introduction: Faust and British Literature, c. 1810–92
I: The Death of Arthur Hallam
1 ‘I am to die already!’: the Gretchen Tragedy
2 ‘To strive onwards’: ‘Ulysses’, Progress and Trances
3 ‘Out of Orcus into Life’: Hallam and Part Two
II: Religion, Nature and Morality4 ‘Two souls, alas, dwell in my breast’: Religious Doubt
5 ‘Unveil thyself!’: Faust and the Natural World
6 ‘The kiss of heavenly love’: Saints and Sinners
‘Last words’
Conclusion
Bibliography Index