Baldwin, Stanley E. Charles
Kingsley (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1934).
This is a book length treatment of Kingsley's life and works.
After chapters providing a brief biography, a discussion of the background
of the novels, and a consideration of the influence of Carlyle and Maurice,
Baldwin devotes separate chapters to each of the novels: Yeast, Alton
Locke, Two Years Ago, Hypatia, Westward Ho!, and Hereward the Wake.
Baldwin is measured in his assessment, though he still finds much to praise
in Kingsley's diverse literary endeavors. Nevertheless, he considers Kingsley
the man as more prominent than his literature. "Some men's writings
are the greatest part of them, and posterity studies their lives through
a spirit of curiosity excited by their works. In a sense this is
true of Kingsley, but in a truer sense many are reading Kingsley's literary
works because of the indelible impression his personality made upon his
fellow men, for whom, in all his activities, he labored. His life
in itself was a poem of deep lyric passion" (194).
Full
Book Treatment ; Overview
; Carlyle
; Maurice
; Yeast;
Alton
Locke ; Two
Years Ago ; Hypatia
; Westward
Ho! ; Hereward
the Wake .
Haley, Bruce. The Healthy Body and Victorian
Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978).
Haley in discussing Kingsley's confrontation with Newman focuses on
his complex relationship with the notion of muscular Christianity.
Kingsley disliked the term and found offensive such critics as T. C. Sanders
and Fitzjames Stephen who stressed the "muscular" aspect of his Christianity.
Still, Kingsley strongly believed that the spiritual life was very compatible
with both a sexual and a vigorous, active, sporting life. Haley declares
that he found philosophical justification for this attitude in three of
Carlyle's theories: "the body is an expression of spirit, and therefore
the obedience to healthy impulse is a sign of constitutional harmony; the
state of health is a knowledge of the laws of nature and a compliance with
these laws; and heroism is a life of action made possible by observing
the laws of health" (111-112).
Newman
Controversy ; Muscular
Christianity ; Sexuality
; Health
; Carlyle
.
Kovacevic, Ivanka. “Charles
Kingsley's Imperialism and the Victorian Frame of Mind,” Filoloski Pregled:
Casopis Saveza Drustava za Strane Jezike I Knjizevnost SFRJ Vol. 3-4
(1975): 55-72.
Kovacevic examines what
he considers to be Kingsley's manifest jingoism, racism, and imperialism,
declaring that his views on these topics were similar to those of Thomas
Carlyle, Max Muller, and J. A. Froude. He discusses briefly Kingsley's
stance on the Governor Eyre controversy, his xenophobia, his generally
negative opinion of the Spanish, the Irish, the Russians, the Indians,
and others. He declares that "Kingsley was a pure racist" who "taught
that primitive natives are mere animals" (68). Kingsley justified
his imperialism by his belief "that some are born to command and some to
obey, and he extended this belief to include nations and races as well.
If those of 'noble blood' have the right to command, it follows that the
Aryans should govern inferior races" (55-56). Nevertheless, Kovacevic
writes that Kingsley, neither a theorist nor ideologist, should not bear
too much responsibility for the practical politics of the day. His
racist and imperialist views were those already being expounded by great
numbers of the contemporary educated English public.
Social
and Political Views ; Racial
Prejudices ; Imperialism
; Carlyle
; Muller,
Max ; Froude
.
Lovett, Robert Morss and Helen Sard Hughes. The
History of the Novel in England (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932).
In this brief outline of Kingsley’s life and works, the authors stress
the influence of Carlyle declaring that Kingsley was a popular expounder
of the latter’s doctrine.
Overview
; Carlyle.
Mendilow, Jonathan. The Romantic Tradition
in British Political Thought (Totowa, New Jersey: Barnes &
Noble, 1986).
Mendilow examines aspects of Kingsley’s political philosophy and discusses
some primary influences on its development: Carlyle, Shelley, Byron, Maurice,
Wordsworth, Southey, Burns, Owen. He also stresses Kingsley’s advocacy
of increased State involvement in a variety of societal spheres, for example
a special ministry for sanitation, broad-ranging laws regulating employer-employee
relations, an emigration scheme, more State involvement in education.
For Kingsley a paternal government “would orchestrate the different sections
of the people to produce the harmonious composition of a good society”
(180).
Social
and Political Views ; Political
thought, Influences on his ; Carlyle
; Maurice
; St.
Elizabeth of Hungary .
Muller, Charles H. Two Sermons of Charles
Kingsley (Pietersburg, South Africa: University of the North, 1979).
This is the text of two previously unpublished sermon manuscripts from
the Morris L. Parrish Collection, Princeton University Library. Muller,
the transcriber, notes Kingsley’s strong vein of compassion pervading the
sermons. The first, originally preached at Eversley in 1846, stresses that
God does not just belong to some far off eschatological future but that
he is at hand in people’s normal daily life. The second sermon, preached
in 1851 at a child’s funeral, also focuses on a comforting God’s presence
in everyday life. Muller discusses the influence of F.D. Maurice’s
teachings on Kingsley’s “understanding of the present relevance of divine
Providence, and of the Kingdom of God as a present and spreading reality”
(3). Carlyle was another important influence. Muller also discusses
the style and the composition of these two sermons. Though they were manifestly
quickly and carelessly written, probably very shortly before delivery,
“Kingsley’s spoken words, as recorded in the sermons, must have had an
almost magical, and very dramatic, effect on his congregation. In
each case the emotional climax shows how directly they came from the heart”(5).
Sermons
; Eversley
; Religion
; Carlyle
; Maurice
.
Rosen, David. "The Volcano and the Cathedral: Muscular
Christianity and the Origins of Primal Manliness," in Hall, Donald E. (ed.).
Muscular
Christianity: Embodying the Victorian Age (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 1994): 17-44.
David Rosen provides a lengthy analysis of the development of Kingsley's
views on muscular Christianity and manliness. He stresses that these were
complex, many-sided notions and that Kingsley's views on these topics,
as well as his practical involvement in complementary areas, continuously
evolved throughout his life. Rosen argues that among the many influences
on Kingsley's concept of manliness was the notion of Platonic thumos
which
Kingsley considered was a primal manly force, the root of all virtue and
which was manifested through sex, fighting, and morality. Rosen contends
that Kingsley's views on manliness and related topics were highly influential
and that diverse notions of Anglo-American masculinity from the mid-nineteenth
century to the present owe much to Kingsley.
Manliness
; Muscular
Christianity ; Sexuality
; Plato
; Carlyle
; Hughes,
Thomas .
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