In Memoriam: A Norton Critical Edition / Edition 2

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Overview

“With its elegant introduction, lucid annotations, and judiciously selected criticism, Erik Gray’s edition of In Memoriam has long been one of my essential tools for teaching the Victorian period. The new contextual materials in this Third Norton Critical Edition will give students a rich sense of Tennyson’s literary predecessors and cultural milieu. Its newly offered array of Victorian reviews will allow students to explore the ways In Memoriam both soothed and unsettled Tennyson’s contemporaries, while its updated set of critical readings will help them understand how various theoretical and historical approaches to the poem have evolved. I can’t wait to use this new edition in my classrooms.”

—SARAH J. HEIDT, Kenyon College

This Norton Critical Edition includes:

• The Eversley Edition text of the poem, accompanied by Erik Gray’s preface, full introduction, and detailed explanatory footnotes.

• One illustration.

• A generous selection (new to the Third Edition) of background materials on In Memoriam’s subject, Arthur Henry Hallam, as well as its literary and scientific contexts.

• Twelve contemporary reviews spanning 1850–55 (also new to this Third Edition) that suggest In Memoriam’s initial reception.

• Eleven critical essays, five of them new to the Third Edition.

• A chronology, a selected bibliography, and an index of first lines.

 

About the Series

 Read by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format—annotated text, contexts, and criticism—helps students to better understand, analyze, and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900393979267
Publication date:	10/19/2003
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Erik Gray is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a specialist in Victorian poetry. His books include The Poetry of Indifference, Milton and the Victorians, and The Art of Love Poetry.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Alfred Tennyson: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text

In Memoriam

Appendix A: Writings of Arthur Hallam

1. Meditative Fragment 1 (1829)
2. Sonnet [After first meeting Emily Tennyson] (1829)
3. Sonnet [The garden trees] (1831)
4. From “On Sympathy” (1830)

Appendix B: Writings on Natural History, Taxonomy, and Evolution, 1802–44

1. From William Paley, Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (1802)
2. From Charles Lyell, The Principles of Geology, Vol. 1 (1830)
3. From Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844)

Appendix C: Victorian Courtship and Marriage in Fiction

1. From Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery (1824)
2. From Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850)

Appendix D: The Poetic Sequence, 1827–54

1. From John Keble, The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holidays Throughout the Year (1827)
2. From Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
3. From Coventry Patmore, The Angel in the House: The Betrothal (1854)

Appendix E: Reviews of In Memoriam, 1850–55

1. From [John Forster?], The Examiner (8 June 1850)
2. From The Literary Gazette (15 June 1850)
3. From The North British Review (August 1850)
4. From The Eclectic Review (September 1850)
5. From The English Review (September 1850)
6. From [Charles Kingsley], Fraser’s Magazine (September 1850)
7. From [Manley Hopkins?], The Times (28 November 1851)
8. From [Coventry Patmore], The Edinburgh Review (October 1855)

Appendix F: From Hallam Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son (1897)

Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

“This is a very helpful edition which will be of great value to the student reader. Rowlinson’s introduction, notes and appendices supply the reader with intelligent and useful contextual information and offer an engaging, thoroughly informed guide to the ways in which the poem has been read since first publication.” — Kirstie Blair, University of Stirling

“This edition is remarkably comprehensive for such a slim book, including a six-part appendix followed by a reliable and select bibliography, setting good foundations for further reading. The poem’s achievement and legacy are convincingly demonstrated by the fascinating range of appendixed primary sources, including selections from the writings of Arthur Henry Hallam, natural history, Victorian courtship fiction, the poetic sequence form, reviews of In Memoriam, and an extract from Hallam’s Tennyson’s Memoir. These groupings not only prove the central position of primary resources in the valuation of the poem, but establish for undergraduate readers a firm foundation for reference and inference.” — John Francis Davies, Tennyson Research Bulletin

From the Publisher