William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98) is a figure of central importance in British history who has normally, and understandably, been treated as a statesman, the role in which he achieved international fame. Reading Gladstone however, investigates areas of his life which have rarely, if ever, been examined in the past: his role as village librarian, his synchronized collection of books and women, the remarkable transformations that occurred in his (self) representation as a scholar-politician. By exploring the ways in which Gladstone's reading and book-collecting possessed significance in Victorian culture, Ruth Clayton Windscheffel's book makes a major contribution to fresh intellectual and cultural perspectives on the statesman.
'Reading Gladstone is a sophisticated study, written in a remarkably mature and accessible style...Windscheffel is not only good at reading Gladstone: she also has much to tell us about the Victorian Age and its Church.' - Professor Wheeler, The Church Times
'A splendid study...' - telegraph.co.uk
'Dr Windscheffel deserves to be congratulated on producing one of the most original and thought-provoking books to have appeared on this subject...In this superbly researched book...she has produced a perceptive, sympathetic and brilliant reconstruction of an intimately and yet publicly important dimension of the personality and career of one of the greatest Liberal leaders of all times.' Eugenio Biagini, Journal of Liberal History
'Historians and other scholars of Victorian culture are privileged to be able to benefit from Ruth Clayton Windscheffel's exploration of Gladstone's reading and the world that he created through that reading.' Reviews in History
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
PART I: READING THE READER
Sacred Dramas: the history of a collection, 1815-1896
Rhythms of Reading
PART II: MAKING THE READER
The Gentleman's Inheritance, 1809-1836
A Place of Deceptive Tranquillity: Gladstone's Temple of Peace
PART III: ST DEINIOL'S
Humanity: Libraries, Literature, and Liberalism
Divinity: Gladstone, Oxford, and Lux Mundi
PART IV: TRANSFORMING THE READER
Political Lotus Eater to Grand Old Bookman: re-presenting Gladstone the reader
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
RUTH CLAYTON WINDSCHEFFEL is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology at the University of Oxford. Her research interests lie in the modern history of Britain and its empire, with a particular emphasis on the political, religious, and print cultures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is currently conducting research on the Jezreelites, a late nineteenth-century Southcottian sect, under the auspices of the Faculty of Theology's Prophecy Project. Reading Gladstone is her first book.
Description
William Ewart Gladstone (1809-98) is a figure of central importance in British history who has normally, and understandably, been treated as a statesman, the role in which he achieved international fame. Reading Gladstone however, investigates areas of his life which have rarely, if ever, been examined in the past: his role as village librarian, his synchronized collection of books and women, the remarkable transformations that occurred in his (self) representation as a scholar-politician. By exploring the ways in which Gladstone's reading and book-collecting possessed significance in Victorian culture, Ruth Clayton Windscheffel's book makes a major contribution to fresh intellectual and cultural perspectives on the statesman.
Reviews
'Reading Gladstone is a sophisticated study, written in a remarkably mature and accessible style...Windscheffel is not only good at reading Gladstone: she also has much to tell us about the Victorian Age and its Church.' - Professor Wheeler, The Church Times
'A splendid study...' - telegraph.co.uk
'Dr Windscheffel deserves to be congratulated on producing one of the most original and thought-provoking books to have appeared on this subject...In this superbly researched book...she has produced a perceptive, sympathetic and brilliant reconstruction of an intimately and yet publicly important dimension of the personality and career of one of the greatest Liberal leaders of all times.' Eugenio Biagini, Journal of Liberal History
'Historians and other scholars of Victorian culture are privileged to be able to benefit from Ruth Clayton Windscheffel's exploration of Gladstone's reading and the world that he created through that reading.' Reviews in History
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
PART I: READING THE READER
Sacred Dramas: the history of a collection, 1815-1896
Rhythms of Reading
PART II: MAKING THE READER
The Gentleman's Inheritance, 1809-1836
A Place of Deceptive Tranquillity: Gladstone's Temple of Peace
PART III: ST DEINIOL'S
Humanity: Libraries, Literature, and Liberalism
Divinity: Gladstone, Oxford, and Lux Mundi
PART IV: TRANSFORMING THE READER
Political Lotus Eater to Grand Old Bookman: re-presenting Gladstone the reader
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Authors
RUTH CLAYTON WINDSCHEFFEL is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology at the University of Oxford. Her research interests lie in the modern history of Britain and its empire, with a particular emphasis on the political, religious, and print cultures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is currently conducting research on the Jezreelites, a late nineteenth-century Southcottian sect, under the auspices of the Faculty of Theology's Prophecy Project. Reading Gladstone is her first book.
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