Click cover to enlarge

 Open access under:
CC BY-NC 4.0

Part of the book: Matthew Arnold and Goethe

James Simpson

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 11

Modern Humanities Research Association

GermanPoetryopen

Abstract.  Arnold's ideas and practice, 1842-57. A religious crisis was almost inevitable for any intelligent young man of that time aware of the new ideas that were seeping in from the Continent.The nemesis of faith was a fact of life for Clough and Froude no less than for Arnold. But Matthew's case has certain unusual features. Firstly, in comparison with his friends Arnold lost his faith at so early a stage in his development that almost nothing is known of the details. And secondly, Arnold's 'conversion' seems to have been relatively painless. There was no tormented vacillation between one form of confession and another - or if there was, no evidence of it has survived. Note cues in this chapter refer to endnotes in the end matter of the book.

Full text.  This contribution is published as Open Access and can be downloaded as a PDF, or viewed as a PDF in your web browser, here:

Link to full text as PDF