Love is often called a leap of faith. But can faith be described as a leap of love? In Touching God: Hopkins and Love, Duc Dau argues that the conversion of Gerard Manley Hopkins to Roman Catholicism was one of his most romantic acts.

Touching God is the first book devoted to love in the writings of Hopkins, illuminating our understanding of him as a romantic poet. Discussions of desire in Hopkins poetry have focused on his tortured and unrequited attraction to men. In contrast, Dau builds on existing queer and conventional readings of the poet s work by turning to theories of...

'Jane Austen and her Readers, 1786-1945' is a study of readers' interactions with the works of one of England's most enduringly popular novelists. Employing an innovative approach made possible by new research in the field of the history of reading, the volume discusses Austen's own ideas about books and readers, the uses she makes of her reading, and the relationship of her style to her readers' responses. It considers the role of editions and criticism in directing readers' responses, and presents and analyses a variety of source material related to readers who read Austen's works...

Empire and the Animal Body: Violence, Identity and Ecology in Victorian Adventure Fiction explores representations of exotic animals in Victorian adventure fiction, mainly in works by R. M. Ballantyne, G. A. Henty, G. M. Fenn, Paul du Chaillu, H. Rider Haggard and John Buchan. These primary texts are concerned with Southern and West Africa, India and what is now Indonesia in the period 1860 1910, an era which comprises imperial expansion, consolidation and the beginnings of imperial decline. Representations of exotic animals in such literary works generally revolve around portrayals of...

The Oxford Movement, initiating what is commonly called the Catholic Revival of the Church of England and of global Anglicanism more generally, has been a perennial subject of study by historians since its beginning in the 1830s. But the leader of the movement whose name was most associated with it during the nineteenth century, Edward Bouverie Pusey, has long been neglected by historical studies of the Anglican Catholic Revival. What attention has been paid to him by scholars has produced a largely negative picture of this complex man. This collection of essays seeks to redress the...

Jane Austen s Families discusses the fictional families such as the Bennets and the Bertrams whose dynamics are crucial both to Austen s plots and to her explorations of ethical complexities. The study focuses upon the central characters interactions with their own families and (to a lesser extent) with other family groups in an exploration of how emotional and moral development is both hindered and fostered by these interactions. Significantly, Austen chooses not to write about the orphaned heroines so often preferred by novelists of the period; rather, for a writer who cares intensely...

William Morris and the Uses of Violence, 1856 1890 offers a new reading of Morris s work, foregrounding his commitment to the idea of transformative violence. Hanson argues, contrary to prevailing critical opinion, that Morris s work demonstrates an enduring commitment to an ideal of violent battle and that combat, both imaginary and actual, is represented as a potentially renewing and generative force in his writings, from the earliest short stories to the late propaganda poems and political romances.

Hanson examines Morris s imagination of violence as a way of understanding the...

'Darwin, Tennyson and Their Readers' is an edited collection of essays from leading authorities in the field of Victorian literature and science, including Gillian Beer and George Levine. The academic study of the interpenetration of Victorian literature and science has grown to be one of the largest and most dynamic areas in Victorian studies: in this collection, leading exponents in the field consider recent developments. The major figures and exact contemporaries, Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson are considered, in the company of John Ruskin, Thomas Huxley, Richard Owen, George...

Focusing specifically on the poetic construction of India, 'Mapping the Nation' offers a broad selection of poetry written by Indians in English during the period 1870-1920. Centering upon the "mapping" of India - both as a regional location and as a poetic ideal - this unique anthology presents poetry from various geographical nodal points of the subcontinent, as well as that written in the imperial metropole of England.

The anthology's selection defines India in various ways: as being against Britain in loyalty and/or critique; in "exile" in or through memories of England; through...

'Jane Austen and her Readers, 1786-1945' is a study of readers' interactions with the works of one of England's most enduringly popular novelists. Employing an innovative approach made possible by new research in the field of the history of reading, the volume discusses Austen's own ideas about books and readers, the uses she makes of her reading, and the relationship of her style to her readers' responses. It considers the role of editions and criticism in directing readers' responses, and presents and analyses a variety of source material related to readers who read Austen's works...

This annotated bibliography of nineteenth-century British periodicals, complete with a detailed subject index, reveals how Victorian commentaries on journalism shaped the discourse on the origins and contemporary character of the domestic, imperial and foreign press. Drawn from a wide range of publications that represent diverse political, economic, religious, social and literary views, this book contains over 4,500 entries, and features extracts from over 40 nineteenth-century periodicals.

The featured articles discuss both the prior and the contemporary press, from annuals to...