Charles Kingsley: Faith, Flesh, and Fantasy

Book Overview

Novelist, poet, Anglican priest, and controversialist, Charles Kingsley (1819-75) epitomizes the bustling Victorian man of faith and letters, a prolific polymath as ready to break a lance with John Henry Newman over Christian doctrine as he was to preach to schoolchildren on the virtues of manly, physical struggle. Kingsley's The Water-Babies and Westward Ho were best-sellers which became classics of children's literature. Kingsley has come to epitomize the Victorian age.

On closer inspection, Kingsley is harder to categorize: a socialist who was also an imperialist, a Chartist revolutionary who was Queen Victoria's favourite novelist, a natural theologian who popularized Darwin, a priest who celebrated sex as sacrament. Kingsley only appears straightforward if you consider him one piece at a time. The debates he shaped remain with us today: faith and sexuality, economics and exploitation, race and identity. The aim of this book is to present the whole man: to consider the public crusades for public health alongside the most private fantasies of sexual intercourse; to consider the ardent imperialist alongside the Darwinist. It will be of interest to all students of Victorian studies, as well as of British/Imperial history, church history, and especially the history of science.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0367679329
• ISBN13: 9780367679323
• Release Date: August 2022
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"