The Rise & Fall Of The Man Of Letters: English Literary Life Since 1800
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
In the grand tradition of English letters, few stories are as richly layered as the rise and decline of the man of letters — that singular Victorian figure who once commanded public discourse, shaped literary taste, and served as the conscience of a nation. John Gross's The Rise & Fall of the Man of Letters: English Literary Life Since 1800 chronicles this compelling arc with wit and precision, tracing the trajectory of literary culture in Britain from the Romantic era through the twentieth century. Through vivid portraits of critics, editors, essayists, and reviewers — from William Hazlitt and Matthew Arnold to F.R. Leavis and Cyril Connolly — Gross illuminates how the written word once held an almost sovereign power over educated society, and how the conditions that sustained such influence gradually eroded. Written with the authority of a consummate critic and the elegance of a practised prose stylist, this landmark work argues that the democratisation of publishing, the rise of mass media, and the professionalisation of academia fundamentally transformed the role of the independent literary intellectual. Gross presents not merely a lament for a vanished world, but a sharp cultural diagnosis that remains startlingly relevant. A must for anyone who has ever wondered what it truly means to write for one's age — and whether such a figure could ever return.
Author: John Gross
Format: Hardback
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
In the grand tradition of English letters, few stories are as richly layered as the rise and decline of the man of letters — that singular Victorian figure who once commanded public discourse, shaped literary taste, and served as the conscience of a nation. John Gross's The Rise & Fall of the Man of Letters: English Literary Life Since 1800 chronicles this compelling arc with wit and precision, tracing the trajectory of literary culture in Britain from the Romantic era through the twentieth century. Through vivid portraits of critics, editors, essayists, and reviewers — from William Hazlitt and Matthew Arnold to F.R. Leavis and Cyril Connolly — Gross illuminates how the written word once held an almost sovereign power over educated society, and how the conditions that sustained such influence gradually eroded. Written with the authority of a consummate critic and the elegance of a practised prose stylist, this landmark work argues that the democratisation of publishing, the rise of mass media, and the professionalisation of academia fundamentally transformed the role of the independent literary intellectual. Gross presents not merely a lament for a vanished world, but a sharp cultural diagnosis that remains startlingly relevant. A must for anyone who has ever wondered what it truly means to write for one's age — and whether such a figure could ever return.