Tennyson’s Camelot

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Ebook in EPUB format. Available for immediate download after we receive your order

DRM:
Watermark

Publication Year:
2010

ISBN-13: 9781554587940

<p>As the principal narrative poem of nineteenth-century England, Tennyson's <i>Idylls of the King</i> is an ambitious and widely influential reworking of the Arthurian legends of the Middle Ages, which have provided a great body of myth and symbol to writers, painters, and composers for the past hundred years. Tennyson's treatment of these legends is now valued as a deeply significant oblique commentary on cultural decadence and the precarious balance of civilization. </p>

<p>Drawing upon published and unpublished materials, <i>Tennyson's Camelot</i> studies the <i>Idylls of the King</i> from the perspective of all its medieval sources. In noting the Arthurian literature Tennyson knew and paying special attention to the works that became central to his Arthurian creation, the volume reveals the poet's immense knowledge of the medieval legends and his varied approaches to his sources. The author follows the chronology of composition of the <i>Idylls</i>, allowing the reader to see Tennyson's evolving conception of his poem and his changing attitudes to the medieval accounts. The <i>Idylls of the King</i> stands, ultimately, as the poet's own Camelot, his legacy to his generation, an indictment of his society through a vindication of his idealism.</p>