Tag: William Wordsworth

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Richardson — Dangers of Sympathy (1985)

Richardson, Alan. “The Dangers of Sympathy: Sibling Incest in English Romantic Poetry.” Studies in English Literature 25.4 (Autumn, 1985): 737–54.

Abstract: “. . . Richardson investigates the recurring motif of intimate brother-sister relationships in the work of English Romantic poets, including Byron, William Wordsworth, and Robert Southey.”

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Oakley — Evaluation of the Writings of Dorothy Wordsworth (1964)

Oakley, Sandra Sue. “An Evaluation of the Writings of Dorothy Wordsworth.” M.S. thesis, Eastern Illinois University, 1964.

“William Wordsworth was not a self-made poet, drawing all his literary genius from his own imagination and sensory resources. Biographers and critics have agreed that his sister, Dorothy, played a major role in his poetic achievements. The success of this great literary figure tells the story of a younger sister who consecrated her entire life to the greatest good of her brother, sacrificing for herself everything outside him and his existence.”

Online.
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 Clutterbuck — Dove Cottage (1974)

Clutterbuck, Nesta. Dove Cottage: A Short Guide to the Home of William Wordsworth, 1799–1808. Grasmere: Trustees of Dove Cottage, n.d. [c. 1974].

Paperback. 24 pages. Includes a photograph of Dorothy Wordsworth’s bedroom.

Abstract: “This is a short guide, with full colour photographs throughout, to the home of William Wordsworth, Dove Cottage in Grasmere. The comprehensive descriptions include the history of the building, with accounts of the interior and the garden, and the life of William and Dorothy until their move to Allan Bank in 1808.”
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Steger — Paths to Identity (2009)

Steger, Sara. “Paths to Identity: Dorothy and William Wordsworth and the Writing of Self in Nature.” Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies 5.1 (Spring, 2009). [Web]

“Her sense of self is different than William’s but it should not be considered less valid because of this difference. ‘A Winter’s Ramble’ stands as one example of Dorothy’s poetic aptitude. Like the rest of her poems, it should be read as a contribution to the body of discourse that shaped romantic ideals by testing their limitations and challenging their constructions.”
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Atkin — Recovering Dorothy (2021)

Atkin, Polly. Recovering Dorothy: The Hidden Life of Dorothy Wordsworth. Salford: Saraband, 2021.

Abstract: “The first book to focus on Dorothy Wordsworth’s later life and work and the impact of her disability – allowing her to step out from her brother’s shadow and back into her own life story. Dorothy Wordsworth is well known as the author of the Alfoxden and Grasmere Journals (1798–1803) and as the sister of the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. She is widely praised for her nature writing and is often remembered as a woman of great physical vitality. Less well known, however, is that Dorothy became seriously ill in 1829 and was mostly housebound for the last twenty years of her life. Her personal letters and unpublished journals from this time paint a portrait of a compassionate and creative woman who made her sickroom into a garden for herself and her pet robin and who finally grew to call herself a poet. They also reveal how vital Dorothy was to her brother’s success, and the closeness they shared as siblings. By re-examining her life through the perspective of her illness, this biography allows Dorothy Wordsworth to step out from her brother’s shadow and back into her own life story.”
 

Contents: 1. Many Dorothies — 2. Dorothy and the Creative Household — 3. Five years of Sickness and of Pain — 4. Sickbed Consolations — 5. Lost fragments Shall Remain — 6. Undiagnosing Dorothy — 7. Dorothy’s Symptoms. — Coda: Finding Dorothy.

Review: Nicola Healey, European Romantic Review 34.1 (February 2023): 76–90.

For an interview with Atkin about her book, see Lucy Writers.

Copies: Library of Congress. — Wordsworth Trust (Reference 2022.23).
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Polowetzky — Prominent Sisters (1996)

Polowetzky, Michael. Prominent Sisters: Mary Lamb, Dorothy Wordsworth, and Sarah Disraeli. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996.

Publisher’s summary: “This work tells the fascinating story of three talented and energetic 19th-century women: Mary Lamb, Dorothy Wordsworth and Sarah Disraeli. Although little-remembered today, they were widely acknowledged in their own time as important and influential figures in British intellectual and artistic society. . . . Dorothy Wordsworth was not only the sister of the great poet but his lifelong intellectual companion. A noted diarist and critic, Dorothy Wordsworth was one of the founders of modern sociology and a major influence on her brother’s poetry.”

See Part Two: Dorothy Wordsworth — Chapter 3: A Pensive Young Lady”; Chapter 4: “Grasmere and Beyond.”

Copy: Library of Congress.
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Özdemir — Two Poems by Dorothy Wordsworth (2005)

Özdemir, Erinç. “Two Poems by Dorothy Wordsworth in Dialogic Interaction with ‘Tintern Abbey.'” Studies in Romanticism 44.4 (Winter, 2005): 551–79, 659.

Abstract: “Dorothy Wordsworth’s work has revealed itself of paradigmatic value to feminist criticism seeking a more complete and truthful picture of Romanticism, thought by scholars working in the area to be possible only through a recapturing of texts hitherto not allowed into the canon, these being often texts by acknowledged or unacknowledged woman writers. Rectifying the traditional attitude to Dorothy Wordsworth’s work, which treated it merely as a textual-biographical source illuminating William Wordsworth’s life and work, Margaret Homans and Susan Levin drew attention to the value of her writing both in its own right and as a part of Romantic literary activity/history. Özdemir examines the dialogic interaction of two poems by Dorothy Wordsworth mainly with ‘Tintern Abbey’ in addition to some other poems by Wordsworth.”
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Winter — Undersong (2021)

Winter, Kathleen. Undersong: A Novel. Canada: Knopf, 2021.

Abstract: “When young James Dixon, a local jack-of-all-trades recently returned from the Battle of Waterloo, meets Dorothy Wordsworth, he quickly realizes he’s never met another woman anything like her. In her early thirties, Dorothy has already lived a wildly unconventional life. And as her famous brother William Wordsworth’s confidante and creative collaborator—considered by some in their circle to be the secret to his success as a poet—she has carved a seemingly idyllic existence for herself, alongside William and his wife, in England’s Lake District. ¶ One day, Dixon is approached by William to do some handiwork around the Wordsworth estate. Soon he takes on more and more chores—and quickly understands that his real, unspoken responsibility is to keep an eye on Dorothy, who is growing frail and melancholic. The unlikely pair of misfits form a sympathetic bond despite the troubling chasm in social class between them, and soon Dixon is the quiet witness to everyday life in Dorothy’s family and glittering social circle, which includes literary legends Samuel Coleridge, Thomas de Quincy, William Blake, and Charles and Mary Lamb. ¶ Through the fictional James Dixon—a gentle but troubled soul, more attuned to the wonders of the garden he faithfully tends than to vexing worldly matters—we step inside the Wordsworth family, witnessing their dramatic emotional and artistic struggles, hidden traumas, private betrayals and triumphs. At the same time, Winter slowly weaves a darker, complex ‘undersong’ through the novel, one as earthy and elemental as flower and tree, gradually revealing the pattern of Dorothy’s rich, hidden life—that of a woman determined, against all odds, to exist on her own terms. But the unsettling effects of Dorothy’s tragically repressed brilliance take their toll, and when at last her true voice sings out, it is so searing and bright that Dixon must make an impossible choice.”

For an account by Winter of her experiences in writing the novel, see this essay by her (Web), and an interview by Trevor Corkum (Web). For a description of a talk by  Winter, see Hannah Britton, “An Afternoon with Dorothy Wordsworth,” 6 August 2019 (Web).

Reviews: Janet Somerville, “Dorothy Wordsworth Finally Gets Her Poetic Due in Kathleen Winter’s New Novel ‘Undersong,’” Toronto Star, 13 August 2021 [Web]. Doreen Yakabuski, 29 August 2021 [Web]. — Brett Josef Grubisic, “Poetry She Wrote,” Literary Review of Canada, September 2021 [Web], ⁠ Marie Wadden, “Winter Captures Kindred Spirit,” Newfoundland Quarterly, January 2022 [Web].