Time and Timelessness in Victorian Poetry

Reviews / Votes

This learned and lucid book is a valuable contribution to the literature on genre and Victorian poems... Huber offers elegant interpretations of Victorian poems, including the most frequently taught works and others chosen wisely. Huber's interpretations are cogent, and so are her graceful dissents with other theorists. She situates her arguments about lyric poetry in the context of the transformations of the society to which the poetry responds-socialism, class struggles, urbanization, mechanization, commercializing of time, theories of evolution, secularization, erosion of certainties, the acceleration of time, and relativities everywhere. -- T. Hoagwood, emeritus, Texas A&M University * CHOICE * Time and Timelessness is a foundational text for anyone interested in the temporal repercussions (and aesthetic experience) of the rhythm, representations, and illusions which underscore so much of the Victorian poetry with which we are most familiar. -- John D. Attridge, University of Surrey * BAVS Newsletter * Huber is not only a sensitive reader of poetry but also an admirably rigorous thinker. Her chapters brim with valuable insights, and her meticulous analysis of the origins and varieties of poetic timelessness is consistently compelling. [...] This book is a timely one in many senses, and it will no doubt be read with great interest and enjoyment by Victorianists and scholars of poetry alike. -- Veronica Alfano * Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies * This is a book of both careful literary scholarship and insightful reading of texts for those interested in Victorian literature and culture. [...] I firmly endorse the author's effort to complicate the singular meaning of "time" in poetry to a plurality of temporalities. -- Rosemary Huisman, The University of Sydney * Kronoscope * How can an aesthetic form that claims to be timeless survive the rapidity of social and technological change driven by industrial capitalism? Irmtraud Huber's incisive study of poetic form, genres and metre gets to the heart of one of the key debates in literature: what is poetry for in the modern age? -- John Holmes, University of Birmingham