Ralph Pite

Edward Thomas (1878-1917) is a renowned poet. Until recently, his prose writing has, by comparison, been neglected and very often dismissed by critics. Thanks not least to the multi-volume new edition being published by OUP (gen. eds. Guy Cuthbertson and Lucy Newlyn), this body of work is being re-evaluated. This new study by Ralph Pite forms part of that undertaking; it is the first to consider Thomas's prose on its own terms, independently of the poetry that it preceded. By considering all of Thomas's prose work in its wide variety of genres (nature writing, literary criticism, fiction, autobiography) and by drawing, for the first time, on the whole range of his reviewing, this study transforms understanding of his development. The continuity of his critical perspective emerges; his Celtic loyalties, their nature and their depth, are revealed; both the complexity and the conviction of his politics are brought to light, alongside his receptive alertness to innovative writing and his own originality and daring as a writer. The view of his achievement generated by his interwar reception (itself the outcome of societal mourning and griefwork) is challenged; so is the critical consensus regarding the quality of his prose and the reasons behind its changing styles across Thomas's career. From all of this, it becomes clear, moreover, how powerfully Thomas's work speaks in the contemporary moment of environmental and climate breakdown. Thomas's prose seeks constantly to articulate a relationship of absolute interdependence between human beings and the natural world. His writing is so exploratory and original because Thomas seeks to address the problematic reality that interdependence--this truth of humanity's place in natural world--is perceptible to Western eyes only as mystery.

This book is a collection of biographical records portraying the life of Rudyard Kipling, drawn from official biographies, memoirs, testimonies, letters, diaries, conversations, anecdotes, essays, and reviews.

Part of the "Lives of Victorian Literary Figures" series, this set collects contemporary memoirs, biographies and ephemera relating to Oscar Wilde, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Editorial apparatus includes a general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a general index.

Ruskin grew up in suburban London; in later life, he settled in the Lake District. Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle moved from rural Scotland to London's Cheyne Walk. This title focuses on writers for whom 'the centre' was a pressing concern. Elizabeth Gaskell, like her contemporary Emily Bronte, was from the north of England, though based in Lancashire and Cheshire rather than Yorkshire. Her first novel, Mary Barton 1848) was set in the north and was unusually realistic in its depiction of Manchester working-class life.. The three volumes that comprise a set are facsimile reproductions of contemporary biographical material. They include letters, memoirs, poems and articles on three outstanding Victorian literary persons: John Ruskin, Elzabeth Gaskell and the Carlyles.

In this second collection of biographical accounts of Romantic writers, the characters of Keats, Coleridge and Scott are recalled by their contemporaries, offering insights into their lives and writings, as well as into the art of 19th-century biography.

The sudden and spectacular growth in Dante's popularity in England at the end of the eighteenth century was immensely influential for English writers of the period. But the impact of Dante on English writers has rarely been analysed and its history has been little understood. Byron, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, Blake, and Wordsworth all wrote and painted while Dante's work - its style, project, and achievement - commanded their attention and provoked their disagreement. The Circle of Our Vision discusses each of these writers in detail, assessing the nature of their engagement with the Divine Comedy and the consequences for their own writing. It explores how these Romantic poets understood Dante, what they valued in his poetry and why, setting them in the context of contemporary commentators, translators, and illustrators, (including Fuseli, Flaxman, and Reynolds) both in England and Europe. Romantic readings of the Divine Comedy are shown to disturb our own ideas about Dante, which are based on Victorian and Modernist assumptions. Pite also presents a reconsideration of the concept of 'influence' in general, using the example of Dante's presence in Romantic poetry to challenge Harold Bloom's belief that the relations between poets are invariably a fight to the death.

Few writers are as strongly associated with a particular place as Thomas Hardy. His role as unofficial historian of Wessex has come to define his reputation, yet only hints at the complexities of a man who cultivated aristocratic friends, spent several months each year in London and wrote some of the most popular, but also most vilified, novels of the Victorian period. In The Guarded Life, Ralph Pite explores these contradictions in the context of Hardy's relationships with women, friends and mentors; the social, family and work pressures he experienced; and his attachment to the Dorsetshire landscape. In doing so, he reveals the personal and emotional life of a public figure who has, despite his fame, remained largely obscure - until now. 'Pite uses new critical techniques and perspectives to make his point ...He is a subtle reader of Hardy's work and applies his impressive reasoning to the man as if he, too, were a kind of text' Daily Telegraph 'An impressive, and impressively human, book, Pite's skill is in balancing the larger sweep of Hardy's life with a sense for what happened at the edges. Like his subject, Pite takes risks with what he reveals, but the detail is always enlarging. Hardy, and his times, seem bigger for this work' New Statesman 'In portraits, Hardy habitually looks downwards or aside, avoiding direct contact. In this biography, Pite has caught his subject's eyes and held his gaze' The Times 'Pite is skilful, not to say ingenious, in drawing together emblems and instances of secrecy ...This new biography encourages us to re-examine Hardy's life as a complex and often self-contradictory whole; Pite's Hardy is altogether more vulnerable than Hardy's version of himself, but also more likeable' Guardian

This book looks at Rider Haggard from a different standpoint, his own. It carries a selection of critical appraisals of Haggard's work by his contemporaries up until the early 1950s.

This volume presents documents that roughly follow the chronology of Joseph Conrad's life and deliberately considers two documents that reveal surprising and important facts that Conrad had carefully concealed.

In their own time, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson and Algernon Charles Swinburne were highly successful writers. Part of the "Lives of Victorian Literary Figures" series, this three-volume facsimile edition draws together a range of biographical sources relating to these three celebrated Victorian authors.

In their own time, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson and Algernon Charles Swinburne were highly successful writers. Part of the "Lives of Victorian Literary Figures" series, this three-volume facsimile edition draws together a range of biographical sources relating to these three celebrated Victorian authors.

In their own time, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson and Algernon Charles Swinburne were highly successful writers. Part of the "Lives of Victorian Literary Figures" series, this three-volume facsimile edition draws together a range of biographical sources relating to these three celebrated Victorian authors.

Considers the reputations and biographical portrayal of three innovative and controversial writers: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins and William Thackeray. These anthologies of contemporary biographical material shed light on the processes at work in the establishment of a public image and a critical reputation.

Considers the reputations and biographical portrayal of three innovative and controversial writers: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins and William Thackeray. These anthologies of contemporary biographical material shed light on the processes at work in the establishment of a public image and a critical reputation.

Considers the reputations and biographical portrayal of three innovative and controversial writers: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins and William Thackeray. These anthologies of contemporary biographical material shed light on the processes at work in the establishment of a public image and a critical reputation.

Part of the "Lives of Victorian Literary Figures" series, this set collects contemporary memoirs, biographies and ephemera relating to Oscar Wilde, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Editorial apparatus includes a general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a general index.

Part of the "Lives of Victorian Literary Figures" series, this set collects contemporary memoirs, biographies and ephemera relating to Oscar Wilde, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Editorial apparatus includes a general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a general index.

Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle moved from rural Scotland to London's Cheyne Walk. This title focuses on writers for whom 'the centre' was a pressing concern. Elizabeth Gaskell, like her contemporary Emily Bronte, was from the north of England, though based in Lancashire and Cheshire rather than Yorkshire. Her first novel, Mary Barton 1848) was set in the north and was unusually realistic in its depiction of Manchester working-class life. Ruskin grew up in suburban London; in later life, he settled in the Lake District . The three volumes that comprise a set are facsimile reproductions of contemporary biographical material. They include letters, memoirs, poems and articles on three outstanding Victorian literary persons: John Ruskin, Elzabeth Gaskell and the Carlyles.

Ruskin grew up in suburban London; in later life, he settled in the Lake District . Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle moved in the opposite direction - from rural Scotland to London's Cheyne Walk. This title focuses on writers for whom 'the centre' was a pressing concern.

Collected here are the biographies which revealed aspects of their subjects that the more favourable "official" accounts tended to hide. The life of the author of each text is described, and their relation to the writers they portray is sketched in.