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Chargement... Amour modernepar George Meredith
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The Victorian writer George Meredith completed Modern Love, his most famous poem, in the months following his wife's death in 1861. The series of 16-line sonnets (a stanzaic form Meredith invented) depicts isolated scenes in an unhappy marriage as both partners take lovers. At the time, Meredith's long poem was savaged by critics both for its style and for its "diseased" content. In this century, however, it has received increasingly favorable attention as an extraordinarily powerful exploration of the realities of Victorian marriage. Along with the text itself and an informative introduction, the editor provides a wide range of background materials to help set the work in its historical and literary context. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)821.8Literature English English poetry 1837-1899 Victorian period, 19th centuryClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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The 50 sonnet poem speaks of an unfortunate universal truth: marriage going stale with time. Placed in Victorian England with the societal restrictions at the time, the result is not hostility or divorce, but something far worse: indifference. As the narrator sarcastically laments, “O, look we like a pair who for fresh nuptials joyfully yield all else?”
Both silently wear a mask, “wishing for the sword that severs all”, and meanwhile having affairs. To guests, they play the “Hiding the Skeleton” game, and in the course of the evening those visitors will see “Love’s corpse-light shine”. The unhappiness both feel is not spoken of directly until the end, and even then, it can’t save them from remaining chained to one another.
The poem is made more poignant in learning that Meredith’s wife had run off with another man four years before he wrote it in 1862, leaving him heartbroken and disillusioned. What shocked society when it was published was less that he drew directly from his own marital experiences, but that he could admit what many felt, that some are bound in passionless marriages, that it’s difficult to remain in love in ‘modern’ times, and that it’s tragic that people feel forced to continue on with one another when they’re both miserable.
The feelings certainly come across, but it’s a little hard to follow the meaning of the Victorian poetry at times, with word patterns a bit forced to complete its rhymes. The result is that it doesn’t stand up quite as well as others do with age, but it’s relatively short and worth reading. ( )