The Symbolist Tradition in English Literature

This major and acclaimed study of the symbolist tradition in England focuses on the years 1850 to 1900 and discusses the poetry of such as William Morris, O'Shaughnessy, the Rossettis, Swinburne, Wilde and Yeats, paintings by Holman Hunt, Millais, Rossetti, Burne-Jones and others, and critical works by Keble, Ruskin, Carlyle, Arnold, Pater and Arthur Symons. This volume considers the changes from romantic symbol through Victorian 'type' and 'emblem' to late romantic image. This study of both literature and the visual arts is comparative in nature, attempting to establish an English symbolist tradition as part of an international development linking the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Originally published by Cambridge in 1988, Lother Hönnighausen's book includes illustrations and a survey of critical works, defining major research issues and offering suggestions for other work.