From Shakespeare to Pope
An Inquiry into the Causes and Phenomena of the Rise of Classical Poetry in England
By Edmund Gosse
1885
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Edmund Gosse (1849 1928), best known for his memoir Father and Son, was one of the foremost literary critics of his day, even though he had not received a university education. Invited to give the prestigious Clark Lectures at Cambridge, he developed the materials for this book, first published in 1885. Gosse sets out his theory of classical poetry, analysing its rise in the seventeenth century in opposition to freer, more romantic blank-verse forms. The book became the subject of a famously excoriating forty-page review by Oxford-educated critic John Churton Collins. While Collins' estimation of the inaccuracies in Gosse's work was largely correct, the review went far beyond constructive appraisal and caused a literary scandal, though Gosse's reputation was not permanently damaged. This book and the controversy it caused form part of the story of English literature as it established itself as a professional academic discipline.
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Author
Edmund Gosse
Author · 6 books
Sir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic, now primarily remembered for his classic memoir, Father and Son (1907), detailing his difficult childhood in a religiously fanatical home. An important and influential critic in his day, Gosse as a critic, essayist and correspondent is still very much worth reading today.
