Alfred Tennyson: Enoch Arden Etc.

Marion Shaw (Loughborough University (Emeritus))

Tennyson originally gave the title of Idylls of the Hearth to the volume he published in August 1864 as Enoch Arden etc. By this time he was famous: In Memoriam (1850) had brought him critical and popular acclaim and the laureateship; Maud (1855), though more equivocally received, had also sold well, and the first four books of what would become Idylls of the King were resoundingly successful when they were published in 1859. But the success of Enoch Arden etc was phenomenal: seventeen thousand copies were sold on the day of publication and sixty thousand by the end of the year. There were some objections to the subject matter and the style of some of the poems but overall it captured the mood of

This article in full comprises 2533 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members. All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

First published 17 October 2003

Citation: Shaw, Marion. "Enoch Arden Etc.". The Literary Encyclopedia. 17 October 2003

[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5354, accessed 30 July 2010.]

Life, Works and Times

Dates:

1864 (Published)

Places:

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes:

Poem collection