Victorian WillOhio University Press, 1989 - 493 pages John R. Reed, author of Victorian Conventions, The Natural History of H.G. Wells, and Decadent Style, has published a new critical study examining nineteenth-century British attitudes toward free will, determinism, providence, and fate. His new book, Victorian Will, argues for the need to understand a body of literature in its broadest historical and intellectual context. From among a number of different possibilities, Reed chose the concept of will -- whether understood as part of a providential scheme, as an illusory power in a determined existence, or as a free agent in a world of chance -- to illuminate the relationship of literary works of the period. Will was not only a prominent subject of discussion in Victorian England, but attitudes towards will affect form, style, and characterization in contemporary fiction, as Reed demonstrates in his discussion of the works of Mary Shelley, Bulwer-Lytton, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and others. Victorian Will is destined to take its place beside Reed's other work as a standard reference in nineteenth-century study. |
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Page 31
... feel the power of volition over the body , we cannot prove that will is an agent on its own . The apparent irregularity and uncertainty in human behavior is an illusion resulting from our ignorance about operative causes . Hume was ...
... feel the power of volition over the body , we cannot prove that will is an agent on its own . The apparent irregularity and uncertainty in human behavior is an illusion resulting from our ignorance about operative causes . Hume was ...
Page 143
... feel only , but to do , is the end of being - to act one's part in the becoming of things and to affect for good or ill the common weal by such action " ( Maudsley , Will , 174 ) .29 Like medical men who based their beliefs on religion ...
... feel only , but to do , is the end of being - to act one's part in the becoming of things and to affect for good or ill the common weal by such action " ( Maudsley , Will , 174 ) .29 Like medical men who based their beliefs on religion ...
Page 167
... feel that they were . Shelley worked his way to a similar sentiment . In Queen Mab ( 1813 ) , he followed the necessarian doctrine with certain inconsisten- cies.11 He called free will a " delusion " in his notes , and in the poem ad ...
... feel that they were . Shelley worked his way to a similar sentiment . In Queen Mab ( 1813 ) , he followed the necessarian doctrine with certain inconsisten- cies.11 He called free will a " delusion " in his notes , and in the poem ad ...
Table des matières
Introduction to Part 1 | 5 |
The Self | 15 |
The Free Will Controversy | 29 |
Droits d'auteur | |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
accept achieve action argued asserted assumed becomes believed called cause central century chapter character Christian circumstance concept concerned consciousness create described desire destiny determinism Dickens direct discussion divine Eliot Essays evolution examine example existence explains expression faith fate feel fiction follow force freedom future George God's Hardy human idea imagination important impulse individual insanity interest issue John later less lives London man's material matter means Meredith mind moral narrative narrator nature necessity never nineteenth century novel offered pattern philosophical plot Poems position present progress providence reader reason religious represents responsibility Romantic says scheme seems sense shape Shelley social soul spirit story Subsequent references appear suggests theory things thought tion true truth University Press Victorian writers York