What do you think?
Rate this book
Medievalism: The Middle Ages in Modern England
The style of the medieval period, which flows through the bloodstream of western culture, was vigorously re-established in post-Enlightenment England. This one-volume history of the Medieval Revival is the first coherent account of it, especially those aspects that are expressed and reflected in literature. The book focuses on the period 1760 to 1971, with an Epilogue on the reverberations of medievalism in the present day.
The rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, after its destruction by fire in 1834, re-established Gothic as the national style. But medieval imitation manifests itself wherever one cares to look: in literature, architecture, the applied arts, religion, politics, and even Hollywood. In this skilled dissection of the components of this pervasive cultural movement, Michael Alexander rejects the idea that medievalism was confined to the Victorian period, and overturns the suspicion that it is by its nature escapist.
The rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, after its destruction by fire in 1834, re-established Gothic as the national style. But medieval imitation manifests itself wherever one cares to look: in literature, architecture, the applied arts, religion, politics, and even Hollywood. In this skilled dissection of the components of this pervasive cultural movement, Michael Alexander rejects the idea that medievalism was confined to the Victorian period, and overturns the suspicion that it is by its nature escapist.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published June 14, 2007
6 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Michael Alexander
33 books9 followersMichael Joseph Alexander (born 1941) is an English translator, academic and broadcaster. He held the Berry Chair of English Literature at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland until his retirement in 2003. He translated Beowulf into modern English verse.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 2, 2020
My rating for this book is related more to the fact that it exists as a superb example of what can be achieved by dedicated scholarship on a particular subject. The subject is specifically the Mediæval Revival in England in the mid 18th-c. (Alexander opts for the spelling to be ‘Medieval’; I prefer ‘Mediæval’). As Alexander explains in his Introduction, this Revival
“… amounted to a change in how those living in England, and those who looked to England, came to imagine their common history and to conceive their very identity. The magnitude of this change has never been sufficiently recognised.
“What follows is the first attempt to write a coherent brief history of the Medieval Revival as a whole. As far as I am aware, it is the first book-length study of this phenomenon to attempt an account of its social, political, religious, architectural and artistic aspects, as these are recorded in literature. [My emphasis] It focuses on England, for which I make no apology, for in no other country does the Medieval Revival seem as central, perhaps because the origins of the English Church, monarchy and Parliament (in that order) are medieval.”
The book then provides thirteen erudite chapters (I prefer to think of them as university lectures) which examine the whole phenomenon from its earliest manifestations in the late Middle Ages, through to the Revival itself, and tracing its continuing influences up to the present day. Overall the writing is clear and friendly, and while some aspects might come across as being rather esoteric for some, I would recommend that the reader continue to plough through those parts and allow oneself to become immersed in the overall gist of what the author is saying. There is much fascinating and often astonishing information and knowledge to be gained, and Alexander is a very accommodating, often droll communicator. Highly recommended.
Of course, one should bear in mind that mere brilliance in the execution of this work does not necessarily imply that it is immune to critical comment. Alexander is meticulous in his selection of those points he wishes to emphasise out of the thousand or so years covered, and as with any proper selection, it must inevitably follow that much is left out as well, especially if it does not have any specific relevance to the subject in question. This precision gives clarity to his concerns; but a more cynical reader might query the actual extent and potency of his thesis as a result
Personally I suspect that clarity should win out in this regard, in that it reveals a particular stance which is true of the literature. This literature is identifiable as an accumulation of literary facts; whether those facts were widely shared or believed in is another matter altogether. At the same time, however, whether they are believed in or not has nothing to do with whether there is any objective truth in them. We are presented with the overlapping thoughts, opinions and evaluations of men (and they are overwhelmingly male!) about the thoughts, opinions and evaluations of other men, over and over again, all unhappy about the world they live in, all seeking some kind of ideal world, apparently crystallised in their fantasies about a mythical time, always in the past — an ideal that in fact was never achieved, and is never achievable in reality.
Perhaps that is the great lesson of all this: that we always seek some fantastic perfect world that we believe we once had, but have now lost; yet we persist in reproducing it in much of our literature and our art, as if merely imagining its existence will ensure its fulfilment in the future, if not in the here and now. Having such illusions can sometimes be useful for inspiring optimism, but if that optimism fails, then insisting on believing that the illusion is still achievable can only be delusional. Does this mean that art and literature which inspires such illusions are in fact symptoms of mental disorder?
“… amounted to a change in how those living in England, and those who looked to England, came to imagine their common history and to conceive their very identity. The magnitude of this change has never been sufficiently recognised.
“What follows is the first attempt to write a coherent brief history of the Medieval Revival as a whole. As far as I am aware, it is the first book-length study of this phenomenon to attempt an account of its social, political, religious, architectural and artistic aspects, as these are recorded in literature. [My emphasis] It focuses on England, for which I make no apology, for in no other country does the Medieval Revival seem as central, perhaps because the origins of the English Church, monarchy and Parliament (in that order) are medieval.”
The book then provides thirteen erudite chapters (I prefer to think of them as university lectures) which examine the whole phenomenon from its earliest manifestations in the late Middle Ages, through to the Revival itself, and tracing its continuing influences up to the present day. Overall the writing is clear and friendly, and while some aspects might come across as being rather esoteric for some, I would recommend that the reader continue to plough through those parts and allow oneself to become immersed in the overall gist of what the author is saying. There is much fascinating and often astonishing information and knowledge to be gained, and Alexander is a very accommodating, often droll communicator. Highly recommended.
Of course, one should bear in mind that mere brilliance in the execution of this work does not necessarily imply that it is immune to critical comment. Alexander is meticulous in his selection of those points he wishes to emphasise out of the thousand or so years covered, and as with any proper selection, it must inevitably follow that much is left out as well, especially if it does not have any specific relevance to the subject in question. This precision gives clarity to his concerns; but a more cynical reader might query the actual extent and potency of his thesis as a result
Personally I suspect that clarity should win out in this regard, in that it reveals a particular stance which is true of the literature. This literature is identifiable as an accumulation of literary facts; whether those facts were widely shared or believed in is another matter altogether. At the same time, however, whether they are believed in or not has nothing to do with whether there is any objective truth in them. We are presented with the overlapping thoughts, opinions and evaluations of men (and they are overwhelmingly male!) about the thoughts, opinions and evaluations of other men, over and over again, all unhappy about the world they live in, all seeking some kind of ideal world, apparently crystallised in their fantasies about a mythical time, always in the past — an ideal that in fact was never achieved, and is never achievable in reality.
Perhaps that is the great lesson of all this: that we always seek some fantastic perfect world that we believe we once had, but have now lost; yet we persist in reproducing it in much of our literature and our art, as if merely imagining its existence will ensure its fulfilment in the future, if not in the here and now. Having such illusions can sometimes be useful for inspiring optimism, but if that optimism fails, then insisting on believing that the illusion is still achievable can only be delusional. Does this mean that art and literature which inspires such illusions are in fact symptoms of mental disorder?
Want to read
October 21, 2010Review from TMR by Marya Demoor of Ghent University
This is one of the best, most informative, most lucidly written histories of English literature which I have ever read. It is a fascinating read for both the general public with an interest in British culture and the more specialised readership of literary scholars and historians.
Michael Alexander is no novice in the trade of literary history writing since he authored the well-known A History of English Literature, published by Palgrave in 2000. Add to that the fact that he is a first-class medieval scholar and one has to come to the conclusion that no one was possibly better placed than he to analyse the phenomenon of medievalism, in all its manifestations, from its emergence in the late eighteenth century until well into
the twentieth. Alexander claims he takes the story of medievalism up to the present day but the focus of the book is firmly on the use and influence of medieval material in the long nineteenth century as the pictures on the dust jacket, with Walter Scott's impressive entrance hall on the front of the dust jacket and Tennyson's "Mariana" as painted by Millais on the back, indicate.
Alexander starts his story by inquiring into the early definitions of and associations with medievalism; he explains the origins and emergence of the term itself since apparently it had to replace the term Gothic which had acquired some negative connotations. He then explores the growing taste for the medieval in the eighteenth century. First he posits the centrality of Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) at a time when the
thirst for all things medieval could hardly be quenched and readers willingly suspended disbelief when they were presented with the work of a fourth-century poet called Ossian. Percy "improved" the selected texts for his Reliques to such an extent that they became readable again and successfully overcame the prejudices his
contemporaries harboured against what they called "gothic." Percy's deliberate rejection of the Neo-classical attitude towards the original text again allowed for the appreciation of authors whose work did not live up to neo-classical standards: "the outbreak of medievalism in the 1760s was in part simply the result of the melting away of the prestige attached by neo-classical literary theory to notions of correctitude. The collapse of standards allowed readers encountering newly discovered writing from earlier English literary history to follow their native instincts." Thus it
was, for instance, that Shakespeare's "discordant mixture of comedy and tragedy" was successfully re-introduced.
The popularity of Percy's Reliques combined with a curiosity about chivalry prepared the ground for the man whose work is key to this study: Sir Walter Scott. Alexander convincingly argues that Scott's reputation at the beginning of the nineteenth century was so extraordinary that his memory was honoured by the highest monument an author was ever given. Scott, Alexander tells us, told stories in verse and in prose. It was his Lay of the Last Minstrel, Ivanhoe and "their progeny" (111) that subsequently led to the medieval revival in the Victorian age ranging from neo-Gothic buildings to paintings, furniture and
stained-glass windows. In the world of books, after Scott's death, it is the young Alfred Tennyson who takes up the medieval torch from there.
Alexander now moves onto fairly predictable ground with Tennyson's influence on the Pre-Raphaelite painters and poets and art critics such as John Ruskin. But he surprises again when turning for instance to the work of Gerald Manley Hopkins and inevitably he adds his own interesting and unusual insights. "Those who turned from aestheticism to decadence" he avers on p. 209, "often turned also from medievalism to Catholicism."
With Hopkins then we are only one step away from the modernist generation. The work of Jerome McGann has amply demonstrated how much the modernist artists such as Pound were influenced by medieval art and artist. At the beginning of the twentieth century there was a popular awareness of the medieval past, Alexander points out, which made a second Medieval Revival possible. Indeed, he believes Ezra Pound and W.B. Yeats to be the main poets who continued the movement; but there were others whose medievalist creations are popular even now. With the film adaptations of J.R.R.
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis he has landed in the twentieth century and proven that the fascination with all things medieval is still very much alive.
This book is a pleasure to read. The author's wealth of knowledge, visually illustrated by means of more than a hundred aptly chosen often unknown documents and paintings is compacted in just 289 pages (without the index). My only regret in respect to the illustrations would be that the reproductions of the paintings do not show the frames which for medieval artists as well as for those painters inspired by the age carried so much meaning. Alexander has the unusual talent of carrying his erudition lightly: his research results are contextualised as well as humanised by the odd, amusing anecdote. Thus while Walter Scott's pioneering and influential role in the popularity of medievalism is convincingly, repeatedly and seriously argued, Scott is also presented as the obsessive collector of precious artefacts. Then follows the anecdote: Scott is said the have stage-managed the first visit of George IV to
Edinburgh in all its details, but after the King had drunk a
whisky, Scott managed to take the glass with him, hidden in the tail-pocket of his coat. Only, Alexander then remarks laconically, Scott sat upon it.
This is one of the best, most informative, most lucidly written histories of English literature which I have ever read. It is a fascinating read for both the general public with an interest in British culture and the more specialised readership of literary scholars and historians.
Michael Alexander is no novice in the trade of literary history writing since he authored the well-known A History of English Literature, published by Palgrave in 2000. Add to that the fact that he is a first-class medieval scholar and one has to come to the conclusion that no one was possibly better placed than he to analyse the phenomenon of medievalism, in all its manifestations, from its emergence in the late eighteenth century until well into
the twentieth. Alexander claims he takes the story of medievalism up to the present day but the focus of the book is firmly on the use and influence of medieval material in the long nineteenth century as the pictures on the dust jacket, with Walter Scott's impressive entrance hall on the front of the dust jacket and Tennyson's "Mariana" as painted by Millais on the back, indicate.
Alexander starts his story by inquiring into the early definitions of and associations with medievalism; he explains the origins and emergence of the term itself since apparently it had to replace the term Gothic which had acquired some negative connotations. He then explores the growing taste for the medieval in the eighteenth century. First he posits the centrality of Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) at a time when the
thirst for all things medieval could hardly be quenched and readers willingly suspended disbelief when they were presented with the work of a fourth-century poet called Ossian. Percy "improved" the selected texts for his Reliques to such an extent that they became readable again and successfully overcame the prejudices his
contemporaries harboured against what they called "gothic." Percy's deliberate rejection of the Neo-classical attitude towards the original text again allowed for the appreciation of authors whose work did not live up to neo-classical standards: "the outbreak of medievalism in the 1760s was in part simply the result of the melting away of the prestige attached by neo-classical literary theory to notions of correctitude. The collapse of standards allowed readers encountering newly discovered writing from earlier English literary history to follow their native instincts." Thus it
was, for instance, that Shakespeare's "discordant mixture of comedy and tragedy" was successfully re-introduced.
The popularity of Percy's Reliques combined with a curiosity about chivalry prepared the ground for the man whose work is key to this study: Sir Walter Scott. Alexander convincingly argues that Scott's reputation at the beginning of the nineteenth century was so extraordinary that his memory was honoured by the highest monument an author was ever given. Scott, Alexander tells us, told stories in verse and in prose. It was his Lay of the Last Minstrel, Ivanhoe and "their progeny" (111) that subsequently led to the medieval revival in the Victorian age ranging from neo-Gothic buildings to paintings, furniture and
stained-glass windows. In the world of books, after Scott's death, it is the young Alfred Tennyson who takes up the medieval torch from there.
Alexander now moves onto fairly predictable ground with Tennyson's influence on the Pre-Raphaelite painters and poets and art critics such as John Ruskin. But he surprises again when turning for instance to the work of Gerald Manley Hopkins and inevitably he adds his own interesting and unusual insights. "Those who turned from aestheticism to decadence" he avers on p. 209, "often turned also from medievalism to Catholicism."
With Hopkins then we are only one step away from the modernist generation. The work of Jerome McGann has amply demonstrated how much the modernist artists such as Pound were influenced by medieval art and artist. At the beginning of the twentieth century there was a popular awareness of the medieval past, Alexander points out, which made a second Medieval Revival possible. Indeed, he believes Ezra Pound and W.B. Yeats to be the main poets who continued the movement; but there were others whose medievalist creations are popular even now. With the film adaptations of J.R.R.
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis he has landed in the twentieth century and proven that the fascination with all things medieval is still very much alive.
This book is a pleasure to read. The author's wealth of knowledge, visually illustrated by means of more than a hundred aptly chosen often unknown documents and paintings is compacted in just 289 pages (without the index). My only regret in respect to the illustrations would be that the reproductions of the paintings do not show the frames which for medieval artists as well as for those painters inspired by the age carried so much meaning. Alexander has the unusual talent of carrying his erudition lightly: his research results are contextualised as well as humanised by the odd, amusing anecdote. Thus while Walter Scott's pioneering and influential role in the popularity of medievalism is convincingly, repeatedly and seriously argued, Scott is also presented as the obsessive collector of precious artefacts. Then follows the anecdote: Scott is said the have stage-managed the first visit of George IV to
Edinburgh in all its details, but after the King had drunk a
whisky, Scott managed to take the glass with him, hidden in the tail-pocket of his coat. Only, Alexander then remarks laconically, Scott sat upon it.
October 8, 2020
I did not enjoy this book. This is not the fault of the topic. I love history and I especially find it interesting how different epochs utilise earlier history, this goes for today and also for the Victorian age (which is the core time period this book covers). I especially find it fascinating how the past is used in the process of nation-building. In Britain the more "particular medieval" serves such a nation-building contrast to the more "universal classicism" that especially had become an "other" after the Napoleoenic wars. However, even though the topic is interesting, this book does not do it, justice. The focus is mainly on litterature, which is interesting, but the book seems to require a quite in-depth knowledge of British writers and poets. I do have a basic overview, but not the truly in-depth knowledge necessary to fully enjoy and learn from a book like this. It is exceptionally dry, and full of references to British writers, who themselves spread on thick not only with medieval, but also classical references. The book started out interesting, but quickly turned into a chore for me, even though some chapters were more accessible than others.
This book was presented as optional reading in a university course I am taking, and I suggest people to treat it as such. If you are interested and knowledegable about British writers, especially poets, then this book might give you new and interesting perspectives. If not, then I suggest skipping this book.
This book was presented as optional reading in a university course I am taking, and I suggest people to treat it as such. If you are interested and knowledegable about British writers, especially poets, then this book might give you new and interesting perspectives. If not, then I suggest skipping this book.
Read
August 10, 2021illuminating overview of the medieval revival in victorian england. I think its primarily made for a british audience as it seems to make some assumptions abt the readers knowledge of english history that I had to look up. It focuses mostly on literature (the author is a lit professor) but also delves into architecture, art, and slightly into political thought. Id like to have delved more into its influence on political ideas but this is a good general summation across multiple disciplines
Read
September 26, 2015A book on the origins and manifestations of the modern popular understanding of the medieval past.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews