The Age of Tennyson
The Age of Tennyson

Author: Hugh Walker

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2019-12-20

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13:

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'The Age of Tennyson' by Hugh Walker is an examination of the literary period from 1830 to 1870. While this time is often referred to as the Tennysonian era, the book explains why it ended over twenty years before Tennyson's death. The volume highlights Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, and Ruskin as the survivors into a new period but includes sketches of their later works as well. The book's main focus is on the greater men of the era and their search for truth and understanding, as seen in science, psychology, and the development of clear and precise writing.

The Cockney Who Sold the Alps
The Cockney Who Sold the Alps

Author: McNee, Alan

Publisher: Victorian Secrets Limited

Published: 2015-05-14

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1906469520

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Albert Smith is one of the most famous Victorians of whom you’ve probably never heard. During his lifetime, he was a household name, thrilling audiences with his Ascent of Mont Blanc show at London’s Egyptian Hall. An inveterate showman, Smith was also a doctor, journalist, raconteur, novelist, travel writer, and playwright. His many talents were outstripped only by his boundless self-belief and huge personality. Even Queen Victoria described him in her journal as “inimitable”, an epithet Smith’s contemporary Charles Dickens liked to reserve for himself. Although Smith died aged only 43, he managed to pack much incident into his short life. He was robbed by highwaymen in Italy, narrowly escaped death in a hot air ballooning accident, and dodged arrest in Paris during the June Days Uprising of 1848. He also got caught up in the row over Dickens’s affair with Ellen Ternan. While his bumptiousness made Smith a divisive figure, many saw in him the Victorian ideal of the self-made man: energetic, imaginative, and ready to seize any new opportunity. As Alan McNee explains in this lively biography, it was his intrepid ascent of Mont Blanc in 1851 that propelled Smith to stardom. His subsequent show inspired ‘Mont Blanc mania’, encouraging participation in mountaineering as a popular pursuit. The Cockney Who Sold the Alps is a story of ambition, spectacle, and the fleeting nature of celebrity.