British Aestheticism and Ancient Greece: Hellenism, Reception, Gods in Exile by Stefano Evangelista

Abstract

846 Reviews of individual corpora and authorship within the fertile economy of sociable and artistic exchange which characterized late eighteenth-century literary elites in ge neral, and women's intellectual circles inparticular, is at the heart of Smith's choice to inventory and describe such a plethora of non-autograph material (transcripts, autograph books, commonplace books, epistolary references, portraits, tokens, and memorabilia), which makes a significant contribution to themultifaceted canvas of this book. In so doing, he conveys suggestive and intriguing information about the actual extent and variety ofMore's literary production, the innerworkings of her creative imagination, and 'the contemporary circulation and reception history of her writings' (p. xxiv). In line with his stated objectives, Smith identifies a wealth of undocumented autographs and transcripts of letters and poetic and prose fragments by More. He also charts, and this makes indeed for compelling reading for literary and cultural historians alike, themultiple migration' routes of her previously largely unfathomed epistolary and literarymanuscripts, tracing them back to public and private repositories in ninety-five British and North American locations and providing exhaustive and richly detailed records according to a template which improves on the Index ofEnglish LiteraryManuscripts and Letters, 4 vols (London: Mansell, 1980-93) (p. xxiv). Equally fascinating are the sections devoted to the other main objectives of Smith's work, namely, 'to undertake a preliminary reconstruction of her personal library [...], to offer a survey of her iconography that draws on unpublished manuscript sources, and to collect relics and forgotten anecdotes relating toMore' (p. xxiv), which he lists in a section called 'Moriana\ An 'indispensable reference work', as is claimed in the back matter, 'not only forMore scholars but for those researching the careers ofmany of her contem poraries', thiswell-researched and captivating book is a compelling example of theway inwhich meticulous and passionate archival investigation can rewardingly cross-fertilize more conventional 'literary' approaches to theworks of authors par ticipating in the still vibrant manuscript culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Universita degli Studi di Milano Lidia De Michelis British Aestheticism and Ancient Greece: Hellenism, Reception, Gods inExile. By Stefano Evangelista. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2009. xi+203 pp. ?50. ISBN 978-0-230-54711-7. Stefano Evangelistas 'contention is that the experience of ancient Greece stands at the very heart of literary aestheticism in its polemical and counter-cultural identities' (p. 2). The claim is,perhaps, scarcely contentious, but his tracing of the intertextual dialogue whereby Victorian aesthetes evoked aHellenic world for their own purposes succeeds in throwing fresh lighton something taken forgranted. The enabling influence of Winckelmann haunts British Aestheticism and Ancient Greece MLR, 105.3, 2010 847 throughout as Evangelista explores theways inwhich the eighteenth-century Hel lenophiles imaginative espousal of ancient Greek 'simplicity and grandeur (p. 26) inspiredWalter Pater and his followers first,tomount a 'counter-cultural' challenge to the prevailing ethos of austere, philologically based Greek scholarship within theAcademy, and thereafter to develop a fuller appreciation of theGreek past by returning to a primitive, Dionysian phase of its culture beyond the boundaries of Arnoldian sweetness and light. It is stimulating to discover less familiar writers on a par and in contention with canonical figures as, with sensitivity and insight, Evangelista charts the evolution ofHellenic debate in thework of Pater, Vernon Lee, 'Michael Field' (Edith Cooper and her aunt, Katharine Bradley), Wilde, and JohnAddington Symonds. What is less in evidence are detailed and precise indications of themanner inwhich their radicalism engaged with and endeavoured to subvert the conservative forces of late Victorian culture. Allusions to 'Victorian values' (p. 74), 'theVictorian double-standard' (p. 97), for example, leave one wanting more, and on a broader frontnot all references toHegel are as clear as theymight be. It is useful to point out the backward-looking, Greek provenance of Pater's famous 'Conclusion* to The Renaissance as a corrective to our seeing it as some type of proto-modernist manifesto, but what immediately strikes the reader is how its insistence on life's transience sets itselfagainst Christian norms. Itwould be unfair, however, to criti cize Evangelista for the book he did not intend towrite, but acknowledged pressure of space hardly excuses the brief reference to Wilde's 'The...