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Towards Democracy
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
528 pages, Paperback
First published June 25, 1916
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About the author
Edward Carpenter
403 books66 followersEdward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist.
A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J. K. Kinney, Jack London, George Merrill, E D Morel, William Morris, E R Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.[1]
As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that human societies pass through. Civilisations, he says, rarely last more than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed through civilisation successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as 'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.
A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a gay community near Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forster.
A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt Whitman and Rabindranath Tagore, corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant, Isadora Duncan, Havelock Ellis, Roger Fry, Mahatma Gandhi, James Keir Hardie, J. K. Kinney, Jack London, George Merrill, E D Morel, William Morris, E R Pease, John Ruskin, and Olive Schreiner.[1]
As a philosopher he is particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that human societies pass through. Civilisations, he says, rarely last more than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed through civilisation successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as 'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth century, such as Boris Sidis, Sigmund Freud and Wilfred Trotter who all recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis and the particular nervousness which was then described as neurasthenia.
A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a gay community near Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forster.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 28, 2013
Edward Carpenter is a socialist dreamboat. That's not to say his work is without its problems (he's a bit nationalistic and he overly idealizes the greenwood, the idea of an old, pastoral England), but he is very progressive for a late Victorian/Edwardian. Women actually have a place in his socialist utopia; he decries the "avenues of young girls and women, with sideway flopping heads, debarred from Work, debarred from natural Sexuality, weary to death with nothing to do." And then in the very same section of Towards Democracy (the long poem after which the book as a whole takes its name) he hates on moneyed assholes "belonging to clubs and . . . giving pence to crossing-sweepers without apparently seeing them." See, socialist dreamboat. But in addition to expressing his displeasure with the state of English society, Carpenter also manages to make his poetry incredibly positive. Its joyousness reminds me at times of André Gide's Fruits of the Earth:
"All is well: to-day and a million years hence, equally. To you the whole universe is given for a garden of delight, and to the soul that loves, in the great coherent Whole, the hardest and most despised lot is even with the best; and there is nothing more certain or more solid than this."
In terms of style, Carpenter writes a sort of Whitmanesque prose poetry. He can occasionally use too many 'O's and 'Ah's and 'Lo!'s. At times he's earnest in a way that an ironic, post-modern reader might find embarrassing, but if you're used to Victorian writing, then you won't be bothered by Carpenter's earnestness. I think, in general, he's rather endearing.
"All is well: to-day and a million years hence, equally. To you the whole universe is given for a garden of delight, and to the soul that loves, in the great coherent Whole, the hardest and most despised lot is even with the best; and there is nothing more certain or more solid than this."
In terms of style, Carpenter writes a sort of Whitmanesque prose poetry. He can occasionally use too many 'O's and 'Ah's and 'Lo!'s. At times he's earnest in a way that an ironic, post-modern reader might find embarrassing, but if you're used to Victorian writing, then you won't be bothered by Carpenter's earnestness. I think, in general, he's rather endearing.
January 2, 2016
fantastic! stunning prose. an elevated, natural philosophy that sheds light on new meaning of democracy and consciousness.
September 5, 2023
Such a vibe
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews