The Collected Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Volumes I and II: Correspondence
1st Edition
Published on 7. March 2013
Other
Multiple copy pack
1186 pages
978-0-19-965370-6 (ISBN)
Description
Hopkins's letters are his secular confessional, and if we wish to understand the man and his poetry, this is material we cannot ignore. This is where his mind allowed itself its most expansive and unfettered expression.
This edition adds 43 letters to the total printed by Claude Colleer Abbott in his three-volume major edition of the mid-twentieth century. It further improves on the earlier editions in four ways: in its accuracy, in its order, in its inclusiveness, and in the thoroughness of its annotation. It is a completely new presentation of the letters, set out on radically different lines from earlier editions. It includes all the letters from Hopkins, but adds all the extant letters which were written to him. It is set out in a single chronological sequence, placing all the replies and queries at their appropriate place within the correspondence, thus providing as far as can be achieved, a narrative sequence. This acts in many ways as an informal intellectual biography of Hopkins, tracking his early ideas, his anxieties, his conversion, his friendships, his priesthood, his disappointments, and his ideas on literature and life. The transcriptions not only revise a large number of readings, but include all legible deletions and corrections, allowing the reader to follow the hesitancies and adjustments of Hopkins's mind.
Like most nineteenth-century poets, Hopkins never published a theoretical account of his work and his thoughts on poetry, but what he had to say can be found in these letters, and their extensive use by critics and poets indicates their richness as a source of ideas on Hopkins's poetry and on poetry and poetics in general.
This edition adds 43 letters to the total printed by Claude Colleer Abbott in his three-volume major edition of the mid-twentieth century. It further improves on the earlier editions in four ways: in its accuracy, in its order, in its inclusiveness, and in the thoroughness of its annotation. It is a completely new presentation of the letters, set out on radically different lines from earlier editions. It includes all the letters from Hopkins, but adds all the extant letters which were written to him. It is set out in a single chronological sequence, placing all the replies and queries at their appropriate place within the correspondence, thus providing as far as can be achieved, a narrative sequence. This acts in many ways as an informal intellectual biography of Hopkins, tracking his early ideas, his anxieties, his conversion, his friendships, his priesthood, his disappointments, and his ideas on literature and life. The transcriptions not only revise a large number of readings, but include all legible deletions and corrections, allowing the reader to follow the hesitancies and adjustments of Hopkins's mind.
Like most nineteenth-century poets, Hopkins never published a theoretical account of his work and his thoughts on poetry, but what he had to say can be found in these letters, and their extensive use by critics and poets indicates their richness as a source of ideas on Hopkins's poetry and on poetry and poetics in general.
Reviews / Votes
Every academic library should own them; so should as many scholars * Bernadette Waterman Ward, Review of English Studies * The collected works of Hopkins being published by Oxford represent a major achievement for everyone interested in the poet and his work. * Sean Sheehan, Dublin Review of Books * These volumes are superb examples of textual editing and will contribute immediately to the reinvigoration of Hopkins scholarship * Frank Fennell, Victorian Poetry *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Students and scholars of Hopkins, nineteenth-century poetry, and poetics in general
Illustrations
11 black-and-white halftones
Dimensions
Height: 223 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 98 mm
Weight
1744 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-965370-6 (9780199653706)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Kelsey Thornton received his Doctorate from Manchester in 1971 for work on the poets of the English 1890s, and retired in 2000 from the chair of English Literature at Birmingham University (he had previously held the chair at Newcastle upon Tyne), to concentrate on writing and editing. He has written on and edited the poetry of Hopkins, John Clare, the Decadents, Ivor Gurney, Nicholas Hilliard, Ernest Dowson, F. W. Harvey, W. W. Gibson, and he has edited the Journals of the John Clare Society (1990-96) and the Ivor Gurney Society (from 1995 until the present). He has in the last decade taken to publishing his poetry which, with painting and drawing, form his usual relaxation.
Catherine Phillips has degrees from Queen's University, Canada, the University of Toronto and Cambridge, where she is a Fellow and Director of Studies in English at Downing College. Her publications include a monograph on Gerard Manley Hopkins and various aspects of art in the nineteenth century, editions of Hopkins's poetry and letters, a biography of Robert Bridges, manuscripts of a play by W. B. Yeats for the Cornell Yeats series, and articles on nineteenth and twentieth-century writers. Currently she is editing the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins for the Collected Works to be published by Oxford University Press (8 volumes).
Catherine Phillips has degrees from Queen's University, Canada, the University of Toronto and Cambridge, where she is a Fellow and Director of Studies in English at Downing College. Her publications include a monograph on Gerard Manley Hopkins and various aspects of art in the nineteenth century, editions of Hopkins's poetry and letters, a biography of Robert Bridges, manuscripts of a play by W. B. Yeats for the Cornell Yeats series, and articles on nineteenth and twentieth-century writers. Currently she is editing the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins for the Collected Works to be published by Oxford University Press (8 volumes).
Content
List of illustrations ; Chronology ; Abbreviations ; Biographical Register ; List of Letters ; Introduction ; Lost Letters ; A note on editorial principles and the presentation of the letters ; CORRESPONDENCE ; Index