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The natural history prose writings of John Clare

The natural history prose writings of John Clare
The natural history prose writings of John Clare

My thesis offers a critical, annotated edition of all Clare's natural history prose, transcribed from MSS. in Peterborough, Northampton and New York. I t includes his earliest passage, 'The Woodman'; the Natural History Letters; the Journal; bird lists; orchid lists; 145 passages on birds, plants, instinct in animals, etc., dating from the 1820s and 1830s; 'Autumn' and 20 shorter miscellaneous passages belonging to the asylum years; Appendices concerned with Clare's lists of cultivated plants, his sketches, books and periodicals on natural history which he owned or wished to buy or borrow; maps of the Clare country; plates of his MSS.; an Introduction, and a Glossary.Close scrutiny of the Clare MSS. reveals that many of his finest natural history observations are recorded in prose, and that prose is often closely related to his poetry. To study only Clare's poetry is to get a distorted view of someone whom James Fisher claimed as the 'finest poet of Britain's minor naturalists and the finest naturalist of all Britain's major poets'; a naturalist, moreover, who, different as he in many ways is, can be compared to the frequently re-edited and beloved Gilbert White. Prompted by James Hassey, one of his publishers, Clare embarked on his own 'Natural History'; another major project was his 1824-5 Journal, a revealing record of his two most compelling preoccupations. These documents, supplemented by numerous passages unpublished in J. W. and Anne Tibbles' Prose (1951), provide the first complete edition of Clare's natural history prose writings.

University of Southampton
Grainger, Winifred Margaret
Grainger, Winifred Margaret

Grainger, Winifred Margaret (1980) The natural history prose writings of John Clare. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

My thesis offers a critical, annotated edition of all Clare's natural history prose, transcribed from MSS. in Peterborough, Northampton and New York. I t includes his earliest passage, 'The Woodman'; the Natural History Letters; the Journal; bird lists; orchid lists; 145 passages on birds, plants, instinct in animals, etc., dating from the 1820s and 1830s; 'Autumn' and 20 shorter miscellaneous passages belonging to the asylum years; Appendices concerned with Clare's lists of cultivated plants, his sketches, books and periodicals on natural history which he owned or wished to buy or borrow; maps of the Clare country; plates of his MSS.; an Introduction, and a Glossary.Close scrutiny of the Clare MSS. reveals that many of his finest natural history observations are recorded in prose, and that prose is often closely related to his poetry. To study only Clare's poetry is to get a distorted view of someone whom James Fisher claimed as the 'finest poet of Britain's minor naturalists and the finest naturalist of all Britain's major poets'; a naturalist, moreover, who, different as he in many ways is, can be compared to the frequently re-edited and beloved Gilbert White. Prompted by James Hassey, one of his publishers, Clare embarked on his own 'Natural History'; another major project was his 1824-5 Journal, a revealing record of his two most compelling preoccupations. These documents, supplemented by numerous passages unpublished in J. W. and Anne Tibbles' Prose (1951), provide the first complete edition of Clare's natural history prose writings.

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Published date: 1980

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Local EPrints ID: 462737
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/462737
PURE UUID: cd164554-cac4-455c-89b7-ac9892ae091f

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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 19:50
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 19:50

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Author: Winifred Margaret Grainger

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