Epic and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Britain

The epic genre continued to be important in the nineteenth century despite its apparent anachronism.

Simon Dentith (Author)

9780521123570, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 November 2009

260 pages

22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

'In this cogent and clearly written book Simon Dentith gives a convincing account of the part played by epic in nineteenth-century literature and culture, which he shows to have been larger than we might casually assume.' The Journal of William Morris Studies

In the nineteenth century, epic poetry in the Homeric style was widely seen as an ancient and anachronistic genre, yet Victorian authors worked to recreate it for the modern world. Simon Dentith explores the relationship between epic and the evolution of Britain's national identity in the nineteenth century up to the apparent demise of all notions of heroic warfare in the catastrophe of the First World War. Para]