Walking, Literature, and English Culture: The Origins and Uses of Peripatetic in the Nineteenth Century

by Anne D. Wallace

This is a cultural history of walking in nineteenth-century England, assessing its importance in literature and in culture. Re-reading Wordsworth in the context of contemporary changes in transportation, agriculture, and aesthetics, Anne Wallace articulates a previously unrecognized literary
mode--peripatetic. Her discussions of eighteenth-century approaches to peripatetic and of John Clare's representations of walking as pastoral trace an itinerary through its varied uses in Victorian literature, notably in the work of Barrett Browning, Dickens, and Hardy. Increasingly frequent
disappointment of peripatetic expectations reflects growing doubt about the writer's and the reader's ability to counter the disconnective tendencies of technology. The book represents a major contribution to the ongoing debates regarding rural English literature in which the author demonstrates how
a proper understanding of peripatetic significantly enriches our assessment of a text's standpoint on key issues, including industrialization, class, and mobility.

Genres: Walking

276 pages, Hardcover

First published August 26, 1993

Reviews

[clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay for context - I was reading this as one of the recommended books for my thesis. I already read one book with a very similar theme, but the approach was so much more interesting (and also so much more fitting for me and my scholastic needs). I get how it could be interesting, however, the main focus on Wordsworth wasn't really that important for me.