The Mind and Art of Coventry Patmore

Although Coventry Patmore, the Victorian Laureate of married love and of Divine Love, has been well served by his biographers, The Mind and Art of Coventry Patmore (originally published in 1957) is the first detailed study of his poetry, prose, and philosophy. Believing that Patmore’s work has often been misinterpreted, J.C. Reid has investigated the sources of his inspiration to show both his originality and the widely ranging nature of his thought, has analysed his prose to reveal the fresh individuality of his opinions and style, and has re-appraised The Angel in the House and The Unknown Eros. Patmore’s doctrine of Love, human and Divine, and its relation to the ideas of Aquinas, Swedenborg, Emerson, Coleridge, St John of the Cross, and the 17th century Metaphysicals are examined from a modern point of view. The development of Patmore’s philosophy and of his poetic art, his views on architecture, art, politics, literature, and mysticism, his relations with Tennyson, Hopkins, Barnes, and other poets, and the idiosyncratic personality of the man himself are explored by Mr Reid to establish a case for Patmore as one of the most original and significant writers of the 19th century. In this work, the author has made use of much unpublished material, the annotated books from Patmore’s library and hundreds of un-reprinted Patmore contributions to periodicals, to produce a book equally rich in its scholarship and its insight.