Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T15:58:46.257Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ambition, the Canon, and the Arnolds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Dorothy Mermin
Affiliation:
Cornell University

Extract

The idea of a literary canon is inextricably connected in English-speaking countries with the Arnolds: Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby, who was credited with revivifying the classical curriculum while recreating the great public schools, and his eldest son, Matthew, the most influential nineteenth-century spokesman for the moral, spiritual, social, and cultural efficacy of a canon widened to include English poetry and available, at least in theory, to every literate English person. Like his father, Matthew Arnold was a professional educator: he earned his living as an inspector of schools, mostly elementary schools for the poor. For both Arnolds, the canon is the curriculum at the heart of the pedagogical enterprise; and the grand, almost mystical power they attached to it spilled over onto the pedagogue. Their professional careers entailed considerable sacrifice of worldly ambition, but the power of pedagogy as they conceived it became their object and their reward.

Type
Work in Progress
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

WORKS CITED

Arbuthnot, Alexander J.Memories of Rugby and India. Ed. by Arbuthnot, Constance Lady. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1910.Google Scholar
Arnold, Matthew. The Complete Prose Works of Matthew Arnold. Ed. Super, R. H.. 11 vols. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 19601977.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, Matthew. The Letters of Matthew Arnold. Ed. Lang, Cecil Y.. 2 vols so far. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1996–.Google Scholar
Arnold, Matthew. Letters of Matthew Arnold 1848–1888. Ed. Russell, George W. E.. 2 vols. New York, 1895.Google Scholar
Arnold, Matthew. The Poems of Matthew Arnold. Eds. Allott, Kenneth, Allott, Miriam. London: Longman, 1979.Google Scholar
Arnold, Matthew. Reports on Elementary Schools. 1852–1882. Ed. Sandford, Sir Francis. London: Macmillan, 1889.Google Scholar
Arnold, Thomas. Introductory Lectures on Modern History. Oxford: John Henry Parker; London: B. Fellowes, 1862.Google Scholar
Arnold, Thomas. Sermons Preached in the Chapel of Rugby School with an Address before Confirmation. 2d ed.London: B. Fellowes, 1833.Google Scholar
Arnold, Thomas. Sermons, with an Essay on the Right Interpretation and Understanding of the Scriptures. 4th ed.London: B. Fellowes, 1845.Google Scholar
Arnold, Thomas. Letters of Thomas Arnold the Younger 1850–1900. Ed. Bertram, James. Auckland: Auckland UP, 1980.Google Scholar
Arnold, Thomas. New Zealand Letters of Thomas Arnold the Younger, with further letters from Van Diemen's Land and Letters of Arthur Hugh Clough 1847–1851. Ed. Bertram, James. Auckland: Auckland UP; London & Wellington: Oxford UP, 1966.Google Scholar
Arnold, Thomas. Passages in a Wandering Life. London: Edward Arnold, 1900.Google Scholar
Arnold, W[illiam] D[elafield]. Oakfield: or Fellowship in the East. Ed. Allott, Kenneth. 1854. New York: Humanities P, 1973.Google Scholar
Arnold, William T. “Thomas Arnold the Younger.” The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine v. 66, n.s. 44, 05 1903, 115–28.Google Scholar
Baldick, Chris. The Social Mission of English Criticism 1848–1932. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1987.Google Scholar
Bamford, T. W.Thomas Arnold. London: Cresset P, 1960.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. Ed. Johnson, Randal. New York: Columbia UP, 1993.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. L.Classical Education in Britain 1500–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1959.Google Scholar
Curgenven, John. “Theodore Walrond: Friend of Arnold and Clough.Durham University Journal n.s. 13 (1852): 5661.Google Scholar
Dowling, Linda. Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1994.Google Scholar
Gilbert, W. S.Plays and Poems. New York: Random House, 1932.Google Scholar
Guillory, John. Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993.Google Scholar
Honan, Park. Matthew Arnold: A Life. New York: McGraw Hill, 1981.Google Scholar
Honey, J. R. de S.Tom Brown's Universe: The Development of the English Public School in the Nineteenth Century. NY: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1971.Google Scholar
Kay-Shuttleworth, James. Four Periods of Public Education as Reviewed in 1832, 1839, 1846, 1862. Brighton: Harvester P, 1973.Google Scholar
Mermin, Dorothy. Godiva's Ride: Women of Letters in England, 1830–1880, Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993.Google Scholar
Roberts, David. Victorian Origins of the British Welfare State. New Haven: Yale UP, 1960.Google Scholar
Rothblatt, Sheldon. Tradition and Change in English Liberal Education: An Essay in History and Culture. London: Faber & Faber, 1976.Google Scholar
Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn. The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold, D.D., 6 ed.London: B. Fellowes, 1846.Google Scholar
Sutherland, John. Mrs Humphry Ward: Eminent Victorian, Pre-eminent Edwardian. Oxford: Oxford UP [1990], 1991.Google Scholar
Tollers, Vincent L. “A Working Isaiah: Arnold in the Council Office,” in Essays and Studies 41. Ed. Allott, Miriam. London: John Murray, 1988.Google Scholar
Warwick, Margaret and Dennis, . Eminent Victorians: The Forsters of Burley-in-Wharfedale. Burley-in-Wharfedale: Local History Group Publications, 1994.Google Scholar
Woodward, Frances. The Doctor's Disciples. London: Oxford UP, 1954.Google Scholar
Willey, Basil. Nineteenth-Century Studies: Coleridge to Matthew Arnold. London: Chatto & Windus, 1949.Google Scholar
Wymer, Norman. Dr Arnold of Rugby. London: Robert Hale, 1953.Google Scholar