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

This, the first modern critical study of a lyricist, humorist and social protest poet who was a household name throughout the Victorian period, explores the relationship between Thomas Hood's playfulness, his liberal politics, and contemporary cultural debate about labour and recreation, literary materiality and urban consumption. -- . "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." "Thomas Hood and nineteenth-century poetry starts by examining the early nineteenth-century print culture into which Hood was born and analyses the dynamic effect of this and his dissenting heritage on his approach to language and play. Sara Lodge goes on to look at the London Magazine and the performative strategies Hood shares with Lamb, Reynolds, and other periodical colleagues, and investigates dramatic monologue, and nineteenth-century 'minor' theatre as well as contemporary grotesque art and literature. One chapter is exclusively devoted to exploring the cultural politics of Hood's trademark puns. The final section discusses the battle over leisure in the early nineteenth century, presenting Hood's play as a critical intervention on the 'labour question' that continues to resonate in the modern academic environment, where the dominant model of productivity undervalues play and pleasure in literary study."--Jacket Annotation 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.