1.
German literature
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German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Belgium and Switzerland, Liechtenstein, South Tyrol in Italy and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the period is mostly in Standard German. The Old High German period is reckoned to run until about the mid-11th century, the most famous works are the Hildebrandslied, Middle High German starts in the 12th century, the key works include The Ring and the poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein and Johannes von Tepl. The Baroque period was one of the most fertile times in German literature, modern literature in German begins with the authors of the Enlightenment. The Sensibility movement of the 1750s-1770s ended with Goethes best-selling Die Leiden des jungen Werther, the Sturm und Drang and Weimar Classicism movements were led by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Biedermeier refers to the literature, music, the visual arts, under the Nazi regime, some authors went into exile and others submitted to censorship. Periodization is not a science but the following list contains movements or time periods typically used in discussing German literature. The closer one nears the present, the more debated the periodizations become, the Old High German period is reckoned to run until about the mid-11th century, though the boundary to Early Middle High German is not clear-cut. The most famous work in OHG is the Hildebrandslied, a piece of Germanic alliterative heroic verse which besides the Muspilli is the sole survivor of what must have been a vast oral tradition. Another important work, in the dialect of Old Saxon, is a life of Christ in the style of a heroic epic known as the Heliand. This was the period of the blossoming of MHG lyric poetry, one of the most important of these poets was Walther von der Vogelweide. The same sixty years saw the composition of the most important courtly romances and these are written in rhyming couplets, and again draw on French models such as Chrétien de Troyes, many of them relating Arthurian material, for example, Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. These high medieval heroic epics are written in rhymed strophes, not the verse of Germanic prehistory. Therefore, the literature of the late 14th and the early 15th century falls, as it were, the Volksbuch tradition which would flourish in the 16th century also finds its origin in the second half of the 15th century. Sebastian Brant Thomas Murner Philipp Melanchthon Sebastian Franck The Baroque period was one of the most fertile times in German literature, many writers reflected the horrible experiences of the Thirty Years War, in poetry and prose. Grimmelshausens adventures of the young and naïve Simplicissimus, in the eponymous book Simplicius Simplicissimus, martin Opitz established rules for the purity of language, style, verse and rhyme
2.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and statesman. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters and he was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. He also contributed to the planning of Weimars botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace and his first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published after he returned from a 1788 tour of Italy. During this period, Goethe published his novel, Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship, the verse epic Hermann and Dorothea, and, in 1808. Goethes comments and observations form the basis of several biographical works, Goethes father, Johann Caspar Goethe, lived with his family in a large house in Frankfurt, then an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire. Though he had studied law in Leipzig and had been appointed Imperial Councillor, Johann Caspar married Goethes mother, Catharina Elizabeth Textor at Frankfurt on 20 August 1748, when he was 38 and she was 17. All their children, with the exception of Johann Wolfgang and his sister, Cornelia Friederica Christiana and his father and private tutors gave Goethe lessons in all the common subjects of their time, especially languages. Goethe also received lessons in dancing, riding and fencing, Johann Caspar, feeling frustrated in his own ambitions, was determined that his children should have all those advantages that he had not. Although Goethes great passion was drawing, he became interested in literature, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. He also took pleasure in reading works on history and religion. He writes about this period, Goethe became also acquainted with Frankfurt actors, among early literary attempts, he was infatuated with Gretchen, who would later reappear in his Faust and the adventures with whom he would concisely describe in Dichtung und Wahrheit. He adored Caritas Meixner, a wealthy Worms traders daughter and friend of his sister, Goethe studied law at Leipzig University from 1765 to 1768. He detested learning age-old judicial rules by heart, preferring instead to attend the lessons of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. In Leipzig, Goethe fell in love with Anna Katharina Schönkopf, in 1770, he anonymously released Annette, his first collection of poems. His uncritical admiration for many contemporary poets vanished as he became interested in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, already at this time, Goethe wrote a good deal, but he threw away nearly all of these works, except for the comedy Die Mitschuldigen. The restaurant Auerbachs Keller and its legend of Fausts 1525 barrel ride impressed him so much that Auerbachs Keller became the real place in his closet drama Faust Part One. As his studies did not progress, Goethe was forced to return to Frankfurt at the close of August 1768, Goethe became severely ill in Frankfurt. During the year and a half that followed, because of several relapses, during convalescence, Goethe was nursed by his mother and sister
3.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets, and is regarded by some as among the finest lyric, as well as most influential, poets in the English language. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Love Peacock, and his own second wife, Mary Shelley. Shelley is perhaps best known for such poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud. Shelleys close circle of friends included some of the most important progressive thinkers of the day, including his father-in-law, the philosopher William Godwin and Leigh Hunt. Though Shelleys poetry and prose output remained steady throughout his life, most publishers, Shelley became a lodestone to the subsequent three or four generations of poets, including important Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite poets such as Robert Browning and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He was admired by Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, yeats, Upton Sinclair and Isadora Duncan. Henry David Thoreaus civil disobedience was apparently influenced by Shelleys non-violence in protest, Shelleys popularity and influence has continued to grow in contemporary poetry circles. Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 at Field Place, Broadbridge Heath, near Horsham, West Sussex, England. He was the eldest legitimate son of Sir Timothy Shelley, a Whig Member of Parliament for Horsham from 1790–92 and he had four younger sisters and one much younger brother. He received his education at home, tutored by the Reverend Evan Edwards of nearby Warnham. His cousin and lifelong friend Thomas Medwin, who lived nearby and it was a happy and contented childhood spent largely in country pursuits such as fishing and hunting. In 1802, he entered the Syon House Academy of Brentford, in 1804, Shelley entered Eton College, where he fared poorly, and was subjected to an almost daily mob torment at around noon by older boys, who aptly called these incidents Shelley-baits. Surrounded, the young Shelley would have his books torn from his hands and his clothes pulled at and this daily misery could be attributed to Shelleys refusal to take part in fagging and his indifference towards games and other youthful activities. Because of these peculiarities he acquired the nickname Mad Shelley, Shelley possessed a keen interest in science at Eton, which he would often apply to cause a surprising amount of mischief for a boy considered to be so sensible. Shelley would often use an electric machine to charge the door handle of his room. His friends were particularly amused when his tutor, Mr Bethell, in attempting to enter his room, was alarmed at the noise of the electric shocks. His mischievous side was again demonstrated by his last bit of naughtiness at school, despite these jocular incidents, a contemporary of Shelley, W. H. Merie, recalled that Shelley made no friends at Eton, although he did seek a kindred spirit without success
4.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
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Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC, was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was immensely popular with the public and wrote a stream of bestselling novels which earned him a considerable fortune. He coined the phrases the great unwashed, pursuit of the almighty dollar, the pen is mightier than the sword, dweller on the threshold, and he had two elder brothers, William Earle Lytton Bulwer and Henry, later Lord Dalling and Bulwer. When Edward was four his father died and his moved to London. He was a delicate, neurotic child and was discontented at a number of boarding schools, but he was precocious and Mr Wallington at Baling encouraged him to publish, at the age of fifteen, an immature work, Ishmael and Other Poems. In 1822 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he met John Auldjo, in 1825 he won the Chancellors Gold Medal for English verse. In the following year he took his B. A. degree and printed, for private circulation and he purchased a commission in the army, but sold it without serving. In August 1827, against his mothers wishes, he married Rosina Doyle Wheeler, when they married his mother withdrew his allowance and he was forced to work for a living. They had two children, Lady Emily Elizabeth Bulwer-Lytton, and Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton who became Governor-General and his writing and political work strained their marriage while his infidelity embittered Rosina, in 1833 they separated acrimoniously and in 1836 the separation became legal. Three years later, Rosina published Cheveley, or the Man of Honour, in June 1858, when her husband was standing as parliamentary candidate for Hertfordshire, she indignantly denounced him at the hustings. He retaliated by threatening her publishers, withholding her allowance, finally he had her committed to a mental asylum. But, after a public outcry she was released a few weeks later and this incident was chronicled in her memoir, A Blighted Life. For years she continued her attacks upon her husband’s character, the death of Bulwer-Lyttons mother in 1843 greatly saddened him. His own exhaustion of toil and study had been completed by great anxiety and grief, on 20 February 1844, in accordance with his mothers will, he changed his surname from Bulwer to Bulwer-Lytton and assumed the arms of Lytton by royal licence. His widowed mother had done the same in 1811, but, his brothers remained plain Bulwer. When King Otto of Greece abdicated in 1862, he was offered the crown of Greece, in 1866 Bulwer-Lytton was raised to the peerage as Baron Lytton. According to the Fulham Football Club, he resided in the original Craven Cottage. Bulwer-Lytton had long suffered with a disease of the ear and for the last two or three years of his life he lived in Torquay nursing his health
5.
English poetry
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This article focuses on poetry written in English from the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The article does not include poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, the earliest surviving English poetry, written in Anglo-Saxon, the direct predecessor of modern English, may have been composed as early as the 7th century. This is generally taken as marking the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry and it is possible to identify certain key moments, however. The Dream of the Rood was written before circa AD700, by and large, however, Anglo-Saxon poetry is categorised by the manuscripts in which it survives, rather than its date of composition. While the poetry that has survived is limited in volume, it is wide in breadth, beowulf is the only heroic epic to have survived in its entirety, but fragments of others such as Waldere and the Finnesburg Fragment show that it was not unique in its time. Other genres include much religious verse, from works to biblical paraphrase, elegies such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Ruin, and numerous proverbs, riddles. With one notable exception, Anglo-Saxon poetry depends on alliterative verse for its structure, with the Norman conquest of England, beginning in 1111 the Anglo-Saxon language rapidly diminished as a written literary language. The new aristocracy spoke predominantly Norman, and this became the language of courts, parliament. While Anglo-Norman or Latin was preferred for high culture, English literature by no means died out, other transitional works were preserved as popular entertainment, including a variety of romances and lyrics. With time, the English language regained prestige, and in 1362 it replaced French and Latin in Parliament, the reputation of Chaucers successors in the 15th century has suffered in comparison with him, though Lydgate and Skelton are widely studied. A group of Scottish writers arose who were believed to be influenced by Chaucer. The rise of Scottish poetry began with the writing of The Kingis Quair by James I of Scotland, the main poets of this Scottish group were Robert Henryson, William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas. The Renaissance was slow in coming to England, with the generally accepted start date being around 1509 and it is also generally accepted that the English Renaissance extended until the Restoration in 1660. However, a number of factors had prepared the way for the introduction of the new learning long before this start date. A number of medieval poets had, as noted, shown an interest in the ideas of Aristotle. The introduction of printing by Caxton in 1474 provided the means for the more rapid dissemination of new or recently rediscovered writers and thinkers. Caxton also printed the works of Chaucer and Gower and these books helped establish the idea of a poetic tradition that was linked to its European counterparts. In addition, the writings of English humanists like Thomas More and Thomas Elyot helped bring the ideas, the establishment of the Church of England in 1535 accelerated the process of questioning the Catholic world-view that had previously dominated intellectual and artistic life
6.
William Edmondstoune Aytoun
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William Edmondstoune Aytoun FRSE was a Scottish poet, lawyer by training, and professor of rhetoric and belles lettres at the University of Edinburgh. He published poetry, translation, prose fiction, criticism and satire and was a contributor to the Edinburgh literary periodical Blackwoods Magazine. He was also a collector of Scottish ballads, in the early 1850s, Professor Aytoun lent his name as a supporter of the fledgling National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights. His distinctive legacy as a teacher has led to him being called the first modern professor of English Literature, William Aytoun was born in the New Town of Edinburgh, the only son of Joan Keith and Roger Aytoun, a writer to the signet. To his mother, a woman of culture, he owed his early fondness for literature, his political sympathies and he also counted poet Sir Robert Aytoun among his relatives. At the age of eleven years William was sent to the Edinburgh Academy, William Aytoun published his first book, Poland, Homer, and other Poems, in 1832, at the age of 19. This youthful work expressed fervent concern for the cause of Poland, in 1833 he journeyed to London where he spent a few months studying law, but decided in September of that year to travel on to Aschaffenburg where he studied German. While in Germany he made a verse translation of the first part of Goethes Faust. He remained in Germany until April 1834, on return to Scotland, Aytoun resumed his legal studies in his fathers chambers. He was admitted a writer to the signet in 1835, by his own confession, though he followed the law, he never could overtake it. Aytoun was a contributor to the Edinburgh literary periodical Blackwoods Magazine beginning in 1836 with the acceptance of his translations from Uhland. In 1839 he joined the staff of Blackwoods, an association which he maintained until the end of his life and his reputation as a keen satirist is also demonstrated by his dramatic verse Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, or The Student of Badajoz under the nom-de-plume of T. Percy Jones, a mock-tragedy in which he parodied the poems of the Spasmodic poets and it was intended to satirise a group of poets and critics, including George Gilfillan, Sydney Thompson Dobell, Philip James Bailey, and Alexander Smith. His parody played a role in ending the vogue for such works. In 1845, Aytoun was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles lettres at the University of Edinburgh and his lectures attracted large numbers of students, raising the attendance from 30 to 150. William Aytoun was married to Jane Emily Wilson, the daughter of Professor John Wilson and she died in 1859 and he then remarried, his second wife being Fearnie Jemima Kinnear, who died in 1904. He had no children by either wife, William Edmonstoune Aytoun is buried close to Professor Wilson in the south section of Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Aytoun, William Edmonstoune, a Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
7.
Poetry of Scotland
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Much of the earliest Welsh literature was composed in or near Scotland, but only written down in Wales much later. These include The Gododdin, considered the earliest surviving verse from Scotland, very few works of Gaelic poetry survive from this period and most of these in Irish manuscripts. The Dream of the Rood, from which lines are found on the Ruthwell Cross, is the surviving fragment of Northumbrian Old English from early Medieval Scotland. In Latin early works include a Prayer for Protection attributed to St Mugint, there were probably filidh who acted as poets, musicians and historians. After the de-gallicisation of the Scottish court from the twelfth century, what survives of their work was only recorded from the sixteenth century. This includes poems composed by women, including Aithbhreac Nighean Coirceadail, the first surviving major text in Scots literature is John Barbours Brus. In the early fifteenth century Scots historical works included Andrew of Wyntouns verse Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland and Blind Harrys The Wallace and they were probably influenced by Scots versions of popular French romances that were produced in the period. Much Middle Scots literature was produced by makars, poets with links to the court, which included James I. Makars at the court of James IV included Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Douglass Eneados was the first complete translation of a major classical text in an Anglian language. James V supported William Stewart and John Bellenden, David Lyndsay wrote elegiac narratives, romances and satires. George Buchanan founded a tradition of poetry that would continue in to the seventeenth century. From the 1550s cultural pursuits were limited by the lack of a court, political turmoil. Poets from this period included Richard Maitland of Lethington, John Rolland), Alexander Hume, a new tradition of vernacular Gaelic poetry began to emerge, including work by women such as Mary MacLeod of Harris. The tradition of neo-Latin poetry reached its fruition with the publication of the anthology of the Deliciae Poetarum Scotorum and this period was marked by the work of female Scottish poets including Elizabeth Melvilles, whose Ane Godlie Dream was the first book published by a woman in Scotland. The ballad became a literary form by aristocratic authors including Robert Sempill, Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw. After the Union in 1707 Scottish literature developed a national identity. Allan Ramsay led a revival, the trend for pastoral poetry. The eighteenth century was also a period of innovation in Gaelic vernacular poetry, major figures included Rob Donn Mackay, Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir, Uilleam Ross and Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, who helped inspire a new form of nature poetry
8.
James Hogg
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James Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand and he was a friend of many of the great writers of his day, including Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorized biography. He is best known today for his novel The Private Memoirs and his other works include the long poem The Queens Wake, his collection of songs Jacobite Reliques, and his two novels The Three Perils of Man, and The Three Perils of Woman. James Hogg was born on a farm near Ettrick, Scotland in 1770 and was baptized there on 9 December. His father, Robert Hogg, was a tenant farmer while his mother, Margaret Laidlaws father, known as Will o Phawhope, was said to have been the last man in the Border country to speak with the fairies. James was the second eldest of four brothers, his siblings being William, David, Robert and David later emigrated to the United States, while James and William remained in Scotland for their entire lives. James attended a school for a few months before his education was stopped due to his fathers bankruptcy as a stock-farmer and sheep-dealer. Robert Hogg was then given the position of shepherd at Ettrickhouse farm by one of his neighbours, James worked as a farm servant throughout his childhood, tending cows, doing general farm work, and acting as a shepherds assistant. His early experiences of literature and story telling came from the Bible and his mothers, in 1784 he purchased a fiddle with money that he had saved, and taught himself how to play it. In 1785 he served a year working for a tenant farmer at Singlee, in 1786 he went to work for Mr. Laidlaw of Ellibank, staying with him for eighteen months. In 1788 he was given his first job as a shepherd by Laidlaws father and he stayed here for two years, learning to read while tending sheep, and being given newspapers and theological works by his employers wife. In 1790 he began ten years of service to James Laidlaw of Blackhouse in the Yarrow valley, Hogg later said that Laidlaw was more like a father to him than an employer. Seeing how hard he was working to improve himself, Laidlaw offered to help by making available for Hogg from his own library. Hogg also began composing songs to be sung by local girls and he became a lifelong friend of his masters son, William Laidlaw, himself a minor writer and later the amanuensis of Walter Scott. It was at time that Hogg, his eldest brother. Hogg first became familiar with the work of the recently deceased Robert Burns in 1797, during this period Hogg wrote plays and pastorals, and continued producing songs. His work as a sheep drover stimulated an interest in the Scottish Highlands, in 1800 he left Blackhouse to help take care of his parents at Ettrickhouse. His collection Scottish Pastorals was published early in 1801 to favourable reviews and his patriotic song Donald Macdonald also achieved popularity
9.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victorias reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as Break, Break, Break, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tears, Idle Tears, Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, Ulysses, and Tithonus. During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success and he is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England and he was born into a middle-class line of Tennysons, but also had a noble and royal ancestry. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, was rector of Somersby, also rector of Benniworth and Bag Enderby, and vicar of Grimsby. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson raised a family and was a man of superior abilities and varied attainments, who tried his hand with fair success in architecture, painting, music. He was comfortably well off for a clergyman and his shrewd money management enabled the family to spend summers at Mablethorpe. Alfred Tennysons mother, Elizabeth Fytche, was the daughter of Stephen Fytche, vicar of St. James Church, Louth and rector of Withcall, Tennysons father carefully attended to the education and training of his children. Tennyson and two of his brothers were writing poetry in their teens and a collection of poems by all three was published locally when Alfred was only 17. One of those brothers, Charles Tennyson Turner, later married Louisa Sellwood, the sister of Alfreds future wife. Another of Tennysons brothers, Edward Tennyson, was institutionalised at a private asylum, Tennyson was a student of Louth Grammar School for four years and then attended Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, where he joined a society called the Cambridge Apostles. A portrait of Tennyson by George Frederic Watts is in Trinitys collection, at Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam and William Henry Brookfield, who became his closest friends. His first publication was a collection of his rhymes and those of his elder brother Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellors Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, reportedly, it was thought to be no slight honour for a young man of twenty to win the chancellors gold medal. He published his first solo collection of poems, Poems Chiefly Lyrical in 1830, claribel and Mariana, which later took their place among Tennysons most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although decried by critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day. In the spring of 1831, Tennysons father died, requiring him to leave Cambridge before taking his degree and he returned to the rectory, where he was permitted to live for another six years and shared responsibility for his widowed mother and the family
10.
The Lady of Shalott
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The Lady of Shalott is a ballad by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Like his other early poems – Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, Tennyson wrote two versions of the poem, one published in 1833, of 20 stanzas, the other in 1842, of 19 stanzas. Tennyson focused on the Ladys isolation in the tower and her decision to participate in the living world, the first four stanzas of the 1842 poem describe a pastoral setting. The Lady of Shalott lives in a castle in a river which flows to Camelot. And by the moon the reaper weary, Piling sheaves in uplands airy, Listening, whispers, stanzas five to eight describe the ladys life. She suffers from a curse and must continually weave images on her loom without ever looking directly out at the world. Instead, she looks into a mirror, which reflects the busy road and she knows not what the curse may be, And so she weaveth steadily, And little other care hath she, The Lady of Shalott. The reflected images are described as shadows of the world, a metaphor that makes it clear they are a substitute for seeing directly. Stanzas nine to twelve describe bold Sir Lancelot as he rides by and is seen by the lady, All in the blue unclouded weather Thick-jewelld shone the saddle-leather, The helmet and the helmet-feather Burnd like one burning flame together, As he rode down to Camelot. The remaining seven stanzas describe the effect on the lady of seeing Lancelot, she stops weaving and looks out of her window toward Camelot, bringing about the curse. Out flew the web and floated wide- The mirror crackd from side to side, The curse is come upon me and she leaves her tower, finds a boat upon which she writes her name, and floats down the river to Camelot. She dies before arriving at the palace, among the knights and ladies who see her is Lancelot, who thinks she is lovely. According to scholar Anne Zanzucchi, in a general sense. Tennysons biographer Leonée Ormonde finds the Arthurian material is Introduced as a setting for the study of the artist. Feminist critics see the poem as concerned with issues of womens sexuality, critics argue that The Lady of Shalott centers around the temptation of sexuality and her innocence preserved by death. Christine Poulson discusses a feminist viewpoint and suggests, the Lady of Shalotts escape from her tower as an act of defiance, based on Poulsons view, escaping from the tower allows for the Lady of Shalott to emotionally break free and come into terms with female sexuality. The depiction of death has also interpreted as sleep. Critic Christine Poulson says that sleep has a connotation of physical abandonment and vulnerability, fairytales, such as Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, have traditionally depended upon this association
11.
Thomas Jefferson Hogg
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Thomas Jefferson Hogg was a British barrister and writer best known for his friendship with the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Hogg was raised in County Durham, but spent most of his life in London and he and Shelley became friends while studying at University College, Oxford, and remained close until Shelleys death. During their time at Oxford they collaborated on several literary projects and they remained good friends, but their relationship was sometimes strained because of Hoggs attraction to the women who were romantically involved with Shelley. Hogg became a barrister and met Jane Williams, who had become a friend of Percy Shelleys shortly before the poets death. Jane became Hoggs common-law wife and they had two children together, the family settled in London, although Hoggs legal career meant that he often had to travel away from home. While living in London Hogg made the acquaintance of several well-known writers and he studied Greek literature for much of his life and published several articles on the subject, including two entries in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Most of the fiction he wrote was poorly reviewed and his best-known literary work was The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, an unfinished biography of the poet. Although the book was researched and painted a clear picture of Shelley as a young man. Hogg was well connected with Whig politicians and he received an appointment to a government commission on municipal corporations and became a revising barrister. His legal career was successful, but he was often frustrated by his failure to attain his goal of becoming a professor or judge. Nevertheless, he was able to provide for his family thanks to an inheritance, Thomas Jefferson Hogg was the eldest of John and Prudentia Hoggs six children. He was given his grandfathers first name and his paternal grandmothers last name. Johns father was the son of a businessman and Prudentias father was a Welsh clergyman. Although John was trained as a barrister, he did not practise law regularly and he instead devoted his time to managing his estate and serving as a justice of the peace. The family lived in a Georgian manor known as Norton House, as a young man, Thomas Jefferson read many books, including Paradise Lost, Tristram Shandy and the Life of Johnson. John taught his son Greek and Latin, every summer the family rented a house in Seaton Carew, where Thomas Jefferson often hunted, fished and went horse riding. He attended a school in Ferrybridge for four years before moving to Durham School at the age of 12. In 1810 Hogg went up to University College, Oxford, his fathers alma mater, there he met and became friends with Percy Bysshe Shelley in October 1810
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