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The Princess
This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!
150 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1847
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About the author
Alfred Tennyson
2,142 books1,442 followersWorks, including
In Memoriam
in 1850 and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" in 1854, of Alfred Tennyson, first baron, known as lord, appointed British poet laureate in 1850, reflect Victorian sentiments and aesthetics.
Elizabeth Tennyson, wife, bore Alfred Tennyson, the fourth of twelve children, to George Tennyson, clergyman; he inevitably wrote his books. In 1816, parents sent Tennyson was sent to grammar school of Louth.
Alfred Tennyson disliked school so intensely that from 1820, home educated him. At the age of 18 years in 1827, Alfred joined his two brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge and with Charles Tennyson, his brother, published Poems by Two Brothers , his book, in the same year.
Alfred Tennyson published Poems Chiefly Lyrical , his second book, in 1830. In 1833, Arthur Henry Hallam, best friend of Tennyson, engaged to wed his sister, died, and thus inspired some best Ulysses and the Passing of Arthur .
Following William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson in 1850 married Emily Sellwood Tenyson, his childhood friend. She bore Hallam Tennyson in 1852 and Lionel Tennyson in 1854, two years later.
Alfred Tennyson continued throughout his life and in the 1870s also to write a number of plays.
In 1884, the queen raised Alfred Tennyson, a great favorite of Albert, prince, thereafter to the peerage of Aldworth. She granted such a high rank for solely literary distinction to this only Englishman.
Alfred Tennyson died at the age of 83 years, and people buried his body in abbey of Westminster.
Elizabeth Tennyson, wife, bore Alfred Tennyson, the fourth of twelve children, to George Tennyson, clergyman; he inevitably wrote his books. In 1816, parents sent Tennyson was sent to grammar school of Louth.
Alfred Tennyson disliked school so intensely that from 1820, home educated him. At the age of 18 years in 1827, Alfred joined his two brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge and with Charles Tennyson, his brother, published Poems by Two Brothers , his book, in the same year.
Alfred Tennyson published Poems Chiefly Lyrical , his second book, in 1830. In 1833, Arthur Henry Hallam, best friend of Tennyson, engaged to wed his sister, died, and thus inspired some best Ulysses and the Passing of Arthur .
Following William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson in 1850 married Emily Sellwood Tenyson, his childhood friend. She bore Hallam Tennyson in 1852 and Lionel Tennyson in 1854, two years later.
Alfred Tennyson continued throughout his life and in the 1870s also to write a number of plays.
In 1884, the queen raised Alfred Tennyson, a great favorite of Albert, prince, thereafter to the peerage of Aldworth. She granted such a high rank for solely literary distinction to this only Englishman.
Alfred Tennyson died at the age of 83 years, and people buried his body in abbey of Westminster.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 10, 2007
Tennyson's The Princess was one of my first introductions to serious poetry. I must have been thirteen when I read it and I fell in love with it, and with Tennyson. Before this I was never really into poetry ... my experiences up to that point were limited to Mother Goose rhymes. I loved that this was a real story; not a string of words out of which one is to dig up the meaning.
It is about a young, independent princess and the prince she is betrothed to ... typical of Victorian romances. There are (not so typical of Victorian romances) undertones/references to feminism which I did not really get or appreciate until a reread a couple of years ago. The princess' devotion in life is to the education and independence of women ... men are to be banned and she is so anti-men that she would risk missing out on one of life's most precious gifts ... love. Of course her betrothed can't stand for this but he's not the storm on the castle type ... so in a Shakespearianesque manner he and his buddies dress up as women and go to attend the princess' all-female school ... it is more serious than that makes it sound though.
What I took from it may not have been what Tennyson intended at all, but if it was ... Tennyson was ahead of his time. It is almost a foreshadowing of tragedy, or maybe a warning. It illustrates what could ... in my opinion what DID ... happen in the wake of feminism; which is the loss of femininity and masculinity in society, not just in a traditional sense, but in a natural, earthy, evolutionary sense. It is not that the epic style poem paints feminism in shadowy contempt ... it's as if Tennyson was all for the education and independence of women ... but that there might be regrets. Like he knew that feminazis & maneaters would hit below the belt, and screw it all up.
Reading this poem helped me to understand myself. I am an anti-feminist feminist. That might not make sense, but it works in my mind. Read the poem, and if you get what I got out of it, you will understand. It's a really good read.
It is about a young, independent princess and the prince she is betrothed to ... typical of Victorian romances. There are (not so typical of Victorian romances) undertones/references to feminism which I did not really get or appreciate until a reread a couple of years ago. The princess' devotion in life is to the education and independence of women ... men are to be banned and she is so anti-men that she would risk missing out on one of life's most precious gifts ... love. Of course her betrothed can't stand for this but he's not the storm on the castle type ... so in a Shakespearianesque manner he and his buddies dress up as women and go to attend the princess' all-female school ... it is more serious than that makes it sound though.
What I took from it may not have been what Tennyson intended at all, but if it was ... Tennyson was ahead of his time. It is almost a foreshadowing of tragedy, or maybe a warning. It illustrates what could ... in my opinion what DID ... happen in the wake of feminism; which is the loss of femininity and masculinity in society, not just in a traditional sense, but in a natural, earthy, evolutionary sense. It is not that the epic style poem paints feminism in shadowy contempt ... it's as if Tennyson was all for the education and independence of women ... but that there might be regrets. Like he knew that feminazis & maneaters would hit below the belt, and screw it all up.
Reading this poem helped me to understand myself. I am an anti-feminist feminist. That might not make sense, but it works in my mind. Read the poem, and if you get what I got out of it, you will understand. It's a really good read.
Read
June 19, 2025If I were a princess, I too would found a women’s university and forbid all men on pain of death.
August 5, 2016
I don't know how anyone can not love this. OMG! I love Lord, Alfred Tennyson turn of phrases. This poem is outstanding. This book is a gift to humanity. It must be read. Do it. 5 stars wishing there were more stars...many more! :)
December 12, 2018
حقیقتن زیبا و باشکوه بود و کاش تموم نمیشد.
[ریویوی مفصلتر خواهمنوشت.]
[ریویوی مفصلتر خواهمنوشت.]
March 22, 2020
I've been wanting to read some classic British poetry. Many of the characters in classical literature and period drama quote lines from them. I found "The Princess" to be fairly easy to follow and quite interesting. The metered verse sounds wonderful read aloud. It's also quite a modern story in that it is about a group of women who swear off all contact with men and what occurs because of it. The women are tired of being kept in the dark due to a lack of education. They feel that they are only allowed to exist to keep the household running and have children. The men fight back in the way only men can, and chaos ensues. The conclusion is somewhat expected, but touching. The poetry is beautiful.
December 3, 2021
I've been working through the poetry volumes in my Riverside Literature Series collection, and several of the ones I hadn't read were Tennysons. I have been surprised to see how well they worked for me, better than I would have expected. Alas, that is not the case with "The Princess" which hasn't aged well. It was controversial in its own time, and there were haters, and let me say I'm with them. This was just a pointless slog of a read.
The archaic pseudo-Shakespearean language in this poem is much less clear than in his Arthurian pieces. It's over-the-top, and frequently indecipherable. To be honest, it's mostly just vamping, because there isn't much to the story, and the story doesn't really make any sense. So, he's burying the weaknesses of the narrative in periphrastic writing.
The result is achingly bad.
And then there's the story. It pretends to be a bit feminist, but turns out to be condescendingly anti-feminist. Tennyson kept rewriting and republishing the thing, because there were storms of criticism for the message; and he frequently whined about readers "not understanding" what he meant. I think those complaining readers understood it just fine, and all his attempts to tangle the verbiage in bad faith didn't change it.
I hope that book-burning never comes back into fashion, but if it does, this would be a good candidate.
Highly not recommended.
The archaic pseudo-Shakespearean language in this poem is much less clear than in his Arthurian pieces. It's over-the-top, and frequently indecipherable. To be honest, it's mostly just vamping, because there isn't much to the story, and the story doesn't really make any sense. So, he's burying the weaknesses of the narrative in periphrastic writing.
The result is achingly bad.
And then there's the story. It pretends to be a bit feminist, but turns out to be condescendingly anti-feminist. Tennyson kept rewriting and republishing the thing, because there were storms of criticism for the message; and he frequently whined about readers "not understanding" what he meant. I think those complaining readers understood it just fine, and all his attempts to tangle the verbiage in bad faith didn't change it.
I hope that book-burning never comes back into fashion, but if it does, this would be a good candidate.
Highly not recommended.
December 8, 2012
While reading the Princess, I couldn't help but feel that I was reading something extraordinary but missing key elements due to the density and obscurity of the prose because of the date of it's writing. Reading it requires effort, and there are many places where I lost track and had to go back and reread to get myself oriented. But at the same time this work is a treasure trove of prose, with wonderful nuggets scattered throughout the piece. Naturally, the subject matter about the relation of the sexes is handled in a way more reminiscent of the times, but it also gives a very eloquent voice to some rather modern attitudes as well.
The formatting was competent and presented no trouble.
Truthfully, it probably merits a five but I have to mark it down a couple of stars simply because of the inaccessibility of the piece to the modern reader due to it's language and style. Not really a fault of the piece itself, but more as a warning about its difficulty to the average reader.
The formatting was competent and presented no trouble.
Truthfully, it probably merits a five but I have to mark it down a couple of stars simply because of the inaccessibility of the piece to the modern reader due to it's language and style. Not really a fault of the piece itself, but more as a warning about its difficulty to the average reader.
November 8, 2018
Definitely ahead of its time, Tennyson was a feminist of his era through this poem, writing about an all female university. Of course, he was by no means a total liberalist, so do not expect this upside down epic poem to be void of misogyny, but it is a great read and far easier than your usual epic.
July 19, 2024
Let the ladies read in peace! God lord, this drama of men.
My eyes rolled so many times that they're starting to get squeaky.
Alternate title proposal: "Noble nice guy just trying to get hot girl who has no interest in him to see the error of her feminist ways and also maybe fall in love with him."
My eyes rolled so many times that they're starting to get squeaky.
Alternate title proposal: "Noble nice guy just trying to get hot girl who has no interest in him to see the error of her feminist ways and also maybe fall in love with him."
January 25, 2021
Tennyson's feminist semi-comic epic may ultimately overstay its welcome, but if modern readers can set aside skepticism and allow themselves to be immersed in the setting, they will enjoy a thrilling mythic tale of a women's college that tackles many issues relevant today.
April 30, 2016
That last section is absolutely lovely.
February 12, 2017
Good short poem and an easy read. A great way to break up reading of a longer book.
It is not super unique or interesting but it is not a bad read.
It is not super unique or interesting but it is not a bad read.
September 30, 2024
In the late 1830s, Alfred Tennyson set out to write a 'serious' poem addressing the so-called 'woman question' of his time: do women have a right to... higher education? Do they perhaps even.... deserve equal rights!? Shocking, I know.
Even though he wrote The Princess to defend women's emancipation, his stances are from a modern point of view so obvious and barebones that it seems his poem achieves no such thing. It also loses points for *still* having ye olde Victorian sexism and chauvinism.
When taking all that with a grain of salt however, 'The Princess' is an absolutely delightful little story of adventure and medievalist romance, with beautiful poems that are rightfully called "among the finest of English lyric". It merits reread after reread.
It starts on a summer day at the country estate of the Vivian family. A gathering of friends and family members, resting in the shade of a park ruin, come to discuss the idea of women's higher education after Lillia's vexed outburst:
"Ah, were I something great! I wish I were / Some mighty poetess, I would shame you then, / That love to keep us children! O I wish / That I were some great princess, I would build / Far off from men a college like a man's, / And I would teach them all that men are taught [...]"
After some further back-and-forth they agree to tell a story by turns about exactly that: an adventure concerning a Prince (unnamed) and his Princess Ida who scorns her engagement to build a woman's university. Ida's harsh law punishes any male trespassers with death (honestly, slay), which motivates the Prince and his two friends to crossdress - this goes right for barely a day before everything goes wrong, then it kinda ends up working out with Ida and the Prince reconciling. (I know, I know, it sounds so bad but it's so funny)
'The Princess' ends where it began at the garden party, with said party divided about the turns the story took and its ending. (The story knows multiple versions because Tennyson kept tinkering on it so much; the final and 'standard' version ended up greatly emphasizing how the story was semi-improvised and collaboratively created, which accounts for the shifts in tone and plot throughout.) Nevertheless, there is the strong implication that this story has allowed the people there to speculate on what was earlier considered unspeakable - women's emancipation - and thus paved the way for further steps in that direction.
It sounds so bad. It's a messy story, possibly intentionally so but still, but it's a delightful read at the same time. The poetry keeps a flippant mock-heroic tone throughout while also having beautiful imagery and some actual humour (despite one critic saying that Tennyson "cannot trifle [...] his smile is a grim one"). It's also quite meta in the way that the 'clashing-of-themes' is an intentional feature, and with the idea that stories are the way we as people relate to each other and the past and the future. I realise I've been typing for quite some time and perhaps nobody will read this but I could keep on writing for quite some time (I actually wrote a paper about The Princess!!). I'll keep it at this.
Even though he wrote The Princess to defend women's emancipation, his stances are from a modern point of view so obvious and barebones that it seems his poem achieves no such thing. It also loses points for *still* having ye olde Victorian sexism and chauvinism.
When taking all that with a grain of salt however, 'The Princess' is an absolutely delightful little story of adventure and medievalist romance, with beautiful poems that are rightfully called "among the finest of English lyric". It merits reread after reread.
It starts on a summer day at the country estate of the Vivian family. A gathering of friends and family members, resting in the shade of a park ruin, come to discuss the idea of women's higher education after Lillia's vexed outburst:
"Ah, were I something great! I wish I were / Some mighty poetess, I would shame you then, / That love to keep us children! O I wish / That I were some great princess, I would build / Far off from men a college like a man's, / And I would teach them all that men are taught [...]"
After some further back-and-forth they agree to tell a story by turns about exactly that: an adventure concerning a Prince (unnamed) and his Princess Ida who scorns her engagement to build a woman's university. Ida's harsh law punishes any male trespassers with death (honestly, slay), which motivates the Prince and his two friends to crossdress - this goes right for barely a day before everything goes wrong, then it kinda ends up working out with Ida and the Prince reconciling. (I know, I know, it sounds so bad but it's so funny)
'The Princess' ends where it began at the garden party, with said party divided about the turns the story took and its ending. (The story knows multiple versions because Tennyson kept tinkering on it so much; the final and 'standard' version ended up greatly emphasizing how the story was semi-improvised and collaboratively created, which accounts for the shifts in tone and plot throughout.) Nevertheless, there is the strong implication that this story has allowed the people there to speculate on what was earlier considered unspeakable - women's emancipation - and thus paved the way for further steps in that direction.
It sounds so bad. It's a messy story, possibly intentionally so but still, but it's a delightful read at the same time. The poetry keeps a flippant mock-heroic tone throughout while also having beautiful imagery and some actual humour (despite one critic saying that Tennyson "cannot trifle [...] his smile is a grim one"). It's also quite meta in the way that the 'clashing-of-themes' is an intentional feature, and with the idea that stories are the way we as people relate to each other and the past and the future. I realise I've been typing for quite some time and perhaps nobody will read this but I could keep on writing for quite some time (I actually wrote a paper about The Princess!!). I'll keep it at this.
September 24, 2025
Absolutely fascinating from a sociohistorical standpoint. I went in intrigued by the division over whether or not it could be considered feminist and wanted to form my own opinion – I don't think it's "straightforwardly antifeminist", and in places it actually felt remarkably progressive, but with the considerable caveat of "written by a Victorian". The characterisation of both Ida and Lilia was particularly interesting. I don't think I know enough of Tennyson's references or personal opinions to form a solid view on how he wanted his readers to interpret Ida and her University, so I'd be interested to reread armed with more of that context.
June 17, 2025
I could not tell you what happened in this poem. I found myself falling asleep every page or so, or falling into a poetry-induced trace like state where I would suddenly shoot to consciousness 25 pages later with no recollection of what I read. I mean, It's not bad, I just couldn't follow the dialogue and plot as well as Idylls of the King.
April 16, 2021
The language is quite old so I didn't know what was going on half the time but I saw the potential in the story. I'm going to have to reread this in a few years to see if it makes more sense.
September 21, 2021
"we learnt our meaning here, / To lift the woman's fall'n divinity / Upon an even pedestal with man."
Read
October 17, 2021Read for university
January 19, 2012
My edition in fact is one year earlier than this and is a presentation copy from the editor Henry W. Boyton M.A. who was also an instructor in English in Phillips Academy, Andover Mass. My copy does not have an isbn number. The Princess is not my favourite Tennyson poem however it is certainly a lyrical and thoughtful read. Alfred Lord Tennyson is one of my favorite poets of all time. The Princess is an epic poem and takes time to read and understand. A story well told in verse!
November 24, 2007
A poem I go back to when I'm in the mood for something sweet and kinda sappy.
July 27, 2014
Read the Princess in the Biola Library. Stunning little thing.
July 10, 2019
DIfficult reading at times, but worth the effort. Tennyson contemplates the value and role of women.
August 14, 2015
Very good. I really like Tennyson’s writing style.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews