Searching in Shadow
Victorian Prose and Thought
by
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As suggested by the title of the book, most of these prose writers were searching earnestly for light but often searching in shadow or confusion in troubled times. So what kind of person was seeking light in a shadowy, shifting, and murky world? He was a wise and well-informed man who wrote compelling prose as a teacher, preacher, and thinker. He wanted to lead his people toward the light of a better day, and he believed he had the means by which to do it. In tumultuous and uncertain times (1832 to 1901) he worked hard to be heard by a sympathetic audience. The result was a lasting contribution to the literature and social conscience of his day.
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About the Book
In 1831, the beginning of a cruel decade in iron times for England, Thomas Carlyle observed: “Man has walked by the light of conflagrations and amid the sound of falling cities, and now there is darkness and long watching till it be morning.” Thirty years later Matthew Arnold counseled a faltering friend who had lost his way: “Roam on! The light we sought is shining still.” When the nineteenth century ended, having generated more questions than answers, more problems than solutions, a journalist writing for a London newspaper summed up the struggle in one short sentence: “They searched in shadows, seeking light.” In tumultuous and uncertain times the authors under scrutiny in this volume, masters of English prose, wrote and lectured to lead the nation out of shadow and confusion, or as one put it: “out of the wilderness.” They are in order of appearance Macaulay, Carlyle, Newman, Mill, Ruskin, Arnold, Darwin, Huxley, Morris, Pater, and Stevenson. Others of lesser note are Spencer, Stephen, and Butler.
About the Author
After graduate work at Baylor and UCLA, James Haydock earned a Ph.D. in Victorian Studies at the University of North Carolina. Later he taught English and American literature in university classes, specializing in the Victorian Era. He has published critical and biographical works in his field as well as historical novels. Now retired, he lives in Wisconsin.