Manchester University Press Thomas Hood and Nineteenth-Century Poetry: Work, Play, and Politics

This is the first modern critical study of Thomas Hood, a hugely popular and influential nineteenth-century poet, editor, cartoonist, and voice of social protest. A close friend of Charles Lamb and John Hamilton Reynolds, but also acclaimed by Dickens, the Brownings, and the Rossettis, Hood bridges the years between 1820 and 1845; his quirky, accessible, diverse output offers fascinating insights for Romanticists and Victorianists alike. Lodge s lively, readable and timely study explores the relationship between Hood s playfulness, his liberal politics, and contemporary cultural debate about labour and recreation, literary materiality and urban consumption. Each chapter offers something distinctive of interdisciplinary interest. The first examines the early nineteenth-century print culture into which Hood was born and the dynamic effect of this and his dissenting heritage on his approach to language and play. The second chapter discusses Hood in the context of the London Magazine and the performative strategies he shares with Lamb, Reynolds, and other periodical colleagues: this leads naturally into a third chapter on Hood, dramatic monologue, and nineteenth-century minor theatre. The fourth chapter situates Hood s work within contemporary grotesque art and literature, investigating the traditional, urban, and political ramifications of that aesthetic, while the fifth chapter explores the cultural politics of Hood s trademark puns. The sixth chapter discusses the battle over leisure in the early nineteenth century and presents Hood s play as a critical intervention on the labour question that continues to resonate in a modern academic environment dominated by unsustainable models of productivity that undervalue play and pleasure in literary study. From the Inside Flap This is the first modern critical study of Thomas Hood, the popular and influential nineteenth-century poet, editor, cartoonist and voice of social protest. Acclaimed by Dickens, the Brownings and the Rossettis, Hoods quirky, diverse output bridges the years between 1820 and 1845 and offers fascinating insights for Romanticists and Victorianists alike. Lodges timely book explores the relationship between Hoods playfulness, his liberal politics, and contemporary cultural debate about labour and recreation, literary materiality and urban consumption.Each chapter examines something distinctive of interdisciplinary interest, including the early nineteenth-century print culture into which Hood was born; the traditional, urban and political ramifications of the grotesque art and literature aesthetic; the cultural politics of Hoods trademark puns; theatre, leisure and the labour question. Lively and accessible, this book will appeal to scholars of nineteenth-century English Literature, Visual Arts and Cultural Studies. From the Back Cover This is the first modern critical study of Thomas Hood, the popular and influential nineteenth-century poet, editor, cartoonist and voice of social protest. Acclaimed by Dickens, the Brownings and the Rossettis, Hood's quirky, diverse output bridges the years between 1820 and 1845 and offers fascinating insights for Romanticists and Victorianists alike. Lodge's timely book explores the relationship between Hood's playfulness, his liberal politics, and contemporary cultural debate about labour and recreation, literary materiality and urban consumption. Each chapter examines something distinctive of interdisciplinary interest, including the early nineteenth-century print culture into which Hood was born; the traditional, urban and political ramifications of the grotesque art and literature aesthetic; the cultural politics of Hood's trademark puns; theatre, leisure and the 'labour question'. Lively and accessible, this book will appeal to scholars of nineteenth-century English Literature, Visual Arts and Cultural Studies. About the Author Sara Lodge is Lecturer in English, specialising in Nineteenth