Beauty and Belief: Aesthetics and Religion in Victorian Literature

299 Pages·1986·5.521 MB·English

by  Hilary Fraser

Beauty and Belief
Aesthetics and religion in Victorian literature

Beautayn dB elief
Aesthetics and religion in Victorian literature
Hilary Fraser
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
University of Western Australia
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A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
FraseHri,l ar1y9,5 3-
Beautayn db elief.
Bibliograpp.h y:
Includiensd ex.
I. Englilsiht eratI 9utrhce e-ntury-Hiasntdoc rryi ticism.
2.A estheticism (Li3t.eA reasttuhreeti)in cl si terature.
4.R eligiionnl iterat5u.rA ee.s thetBircist,i sIh..T itle.
PR468.A33F7139 85 820'.9'008 85-11297
ISBN9 78-0-521-30h7a6r7d-b3a ck
ISBN9 78-0-521-07p3a1p1e-r0b ack
Contents
Acknowledgements page ix
List of abbreviations xi
1
Introduction
1 Theology: Keble, Newman, and the Oxford Movement 7
2 Epistemology and perception: Gerard Manley Hopkins 67
3 Criticism: John Ruskin and Matthew Arnold 107
4 Aestheticism: Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde 183
Conclusion 229
Notes 235
Select bibliography 275
Index 283
v

To Rob

Acknowledgements
I should like to thank my supervisor at Oxford, Mr A. 0. J. Cockshut,
for his guidance during the writing of the thesis on which this book is
based. I am very grateful to Stephen Prickett for his thoughtful and
detailed comments on how the thesis might be refined and improved
upon for publication. Since then, many friends and colleagues have given
practical advice, helpful information, and moral support. Max Beloff,
John Clarke, George Hughes, and Hartley Slater kindly offered to read
chapters of the book during its preparation, and I thank them for their
generous help and invaluable suggestions. I should especially like to
thank Ray Forsyth for sharing his extensive knowledge of Victorian
literature, and for his constructive criticism at every stage of the book's
development. I am greatly indebted to Graham Storey, of Trinity Hall,
Cambridge, and Alan Robinson, of the University of Lancaster, for
reading the manuscript so carefully, pointing out my inaccuracies and
omissions, and offering many stimulating ideas of their own. I am also
grateful to David Bean, Jan Pritchard, Helen Watson-Williams, and
Fay Zwicky for their helpful contributions.
I owe thanks to the University of Western Australia and the Uni­
versity of Buckingham for providing the time and the research facilities
which have enabled me to complete the book. Terence Moore, at
Cambridge University Press, has given me considerable encouragement
and advice, and I thank him for having the imagination to envisage the
book that might be quarried from the thesis. I am very grateful to Lee
Carter, Caroline Horobin, and Sue Lewis for so patiently and excel­
lently deciphering my manuscript, to Bruce McClintock for his help atthe
proof stage, and to Pauline Marsh, who has provided valuable assistance
in the editing of the text for Cambridge University Press.
Finally, there are those to whom my indebtedness is really in­
expressible. I thank my parents for their untiring interest and encourage­
ment throughout my academic career. My husband's quiet confidence
and cheerful optimism has made the completion of a long and unwieldy
study not only possible but enjoyable. It may seem a poor reward for
all his help and support, but it is to Rob that I dedicate this book.
ix