Книга: James Anthony Froude «Short Studies on Great Subjects»

James Anthony Froude

James Anthony Froude (Froude rhymes with "rood") (23 April 1818 – 20 October 1894) was a controversial English historian, novelist, biographer, and editor of "Fraser's Magazine". From his upbringing amidst the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, Froude intended to become a clergyman, but doubts about the doctrines of the Anglican church, published in his scandalous 1849 novel "The Nemesis of Faith", drove him to abandon his religious career. Froude turned to writing history, becoming one of the best known historians of his time for his "History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada". [Paul 110] Inspired by Thomas Carlyle, Froude's historical writings were often fiercely polemical, earning him a number of outspoken opponents. Froude continued to be controversial up until his death for his "Life of Carlyle", which he published along with personal writings of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. These publications illuminated Carlyle's often selfish personality, and led to persistent gossip and discussion of the couple's marital problems.

Life and works

Early life and education (1818–1842)

The son of R. H. Froude, archdeacon of Totnes, James Anthony was born at Dartington, Devon on 23 April 1818. He was the youngest of eight children, including engineer and naval architect William Froude and Anglo-Catholic polemicist Richard Hurrell Froude, who was fifteen years his elder. By James' third year his mother and five of his siblings had died of consumption, leaving James to what biographer Herbert Paul describes as a "loveless, cheerless boyhood" [Paul 20] with his cold, disciplinarian father and brother Richard. He studied at Westminster School from age 11 until 15, where he was "persistently bullied and tormented". [Paul 11] Despite his unhappiness and his failure in formal education, Froude cherished the classics and read widely in history and theology. Beginning in 1836, he was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, then the centre of the ecclesiastical revival now called the Oxford Movement. Here Froude began to thrive personally and intellectually, motivated to succeed by a brief engagement in 1839 (although this was broken off by the lady's father). He obtained a second class degree in 1840 and travelled to Delgany, Ireland as a private tutor. He returned to Oxford in 1842, won the Chancellor's English essay prize for an essay on political economy, and was elected a fellow of Exeter College.

Religious development and apostasy (1842–1849)

Froude's brother Richard Hurrell had been one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, a group which advocated a Catholic rather than a Protestant interpretation of the Anglican Church. Froude grew up hearing the conversation and ideas of his brother with friends John Henry Newman and John Keble, although his own reading provided him with some critical distance from the movement. [Paul 15]

During his time at Oxford and Ireland, Froude became increasingly dissatisfied with the Movement. Froude's experience living with an Evangelical clergyman in Ireland conflicted with the Movement's characterization of Protestantism, and his observations of Catholic poverty repulsed him. [Paul 26–28] He increasingly turned to the unorthodox religious views of writers such as Spinoza, David Friedrich Strauss, Emerson, Goethe, and especially Thomas Carlyle.

Froude retained a favorable impression of Newman, however, defending him in the controversy over Tract 90 [Paul 29–30] and later in his essay "The Oxford Counter-Reformation" (1881). Froude agreed to contribute to Newman's "Lives of the English Saints", choosing Saint Neot as his subject. However, he found himself unable to credit the accounts of Neot or any other saint, ultimately considering them mythical rather than historical, a discovery which further shook his religious faith. [Paul 33–35]

Nevertheless, Froude was ordained deacon in 1845, initially intending to help reform the church from within. [Paul 39] However, he soon found his situation untenable; although he never lost his faith in God or Christianity, [Paul 56] he could no longer submit to the doctrines of the Church. He began publicly airing his religious doubts through his semi-autobiographical works "Shadows of the Clouds", published in 1847 under the pseudonym "Zeta", and "The Nemesis of Faith", published under his own name in 1849. "The Nemesis of Faith" in particular raised a storm of controversy, being publicly burned at Exeter College by William Sewell [Paul 47–48, Willey 131] and deemed "a manual of infidelity" by the "Morning Herald". [Ashton 76] Froude was forced to resign his fellowship, and officials at University College London withdrew the offer of a mastership at Hobart Town, Australia where Froude had hoped to work while reconsidering his situation. [Paul 50] Froude took refuge from the popular outcry by residing with his friend Charles Kingsley at Ilfracombe.

His plight won him the sympathy of kindred spirits, such as George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, and later Mrs. Humphrey Ward. Mrs. Ward's popular 1888 novel "Robert Elsmere" was largely inspired by this era of Froude's life. [Ashton 73]

"History of England" (1850–1870)

At Ilfracombe Froude met and soon married Charlotte Grenfell, Kingsley's sister-in-law and daughter of Pascoe Grenfell. The two moved first to Manchester and then to North Wales in 1850, where Froude lived happily, supported by his friends Arthur Hugh Clough and Matthew Arnold. [Paul 57–58] Prevented from pursuing a political career because of legal restrictions on deacons (a position which was at the time legally indelible), he decided to pursue a literary career. He began by writing reviews and historical essays, with only sporadic publications on religious topics, for "Fraser's Magazine" and the "Westminster Review". Froude soon returned to England, living at London and Devonshire, in order to research his "History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada", on which he worked for the next twenty years. He worked extensively with original manuscript authorities at the Record Office, Hatfield House, and the village of Simancas, Spain. [Paul 78]

Froude's historical writing was characterized by its dramatic rather than scientific treatment of history, [Paul 72] an approach Froude shared with Carlyle, and also by Froude's intention to defend the English Reformation (which he asserted was "the hinge on which all modern history turned" [Qtd. in Paul 72] and the "salvation of England" [Paul 95] ) against the interpretations of Catholic historians. [Paul 73–74] Froude focused on figures such as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, although he became increasingly unfavorable to Elizabeth over the course of his research. [Paul 119–120] Furthermore, he directly expressed his antipathy towards Rome and his belief that the Church should be subordinated to the state. [Paul 73] As a result, when the first volumes of Froude's history were published in 1856 they drew the ire of liberals (who felt that Froude's depiction of Henry VIII celebrated despotism) and Oxford High Churchmen (who opposed his position on the Church); this hostility was expressed in reviews from the "Christian Remembrancer" and the "Edinburgh Review". [Paul 90–91] The work was a popular success, however, and along with Froude's 1858 repudiation of his early novels helped him regain much of the esteem he had lost in 1849. [Paul 91–92, 97] Following the death of Thomas Macaulay in 1859, Froude became the most famous living historian in England. [Paul 110]

Beginning in 1864 Edward Augustus Freeman, a High Churchman, launched a critical campaign against Froude in the "Saturday Review" and later in the "Contemporary Review", somewhat damaging Froude's scholarly reputation. [Paul 147–148, Ch. 5] In 1879, Freeman's review in the "Contemporary Review" of Froude's "Short Study of Thomas Becket" incited Froude to respond with a refutation in "The Nineteenth Century" which largely discredited Freeman's attacks and reaffirmed the value of Froude's manuscript research. [Paul 182–186]

In 1860, Froude's wife Charlotte died; in 1861, he married her close friend Henrietta Warre, daughter of John Warre, M.P. for Taunton. Also in 1861 Froude became editor of "Fraser's Magazine" following the death of former editor John Parker, who was also Froude's publisher. Froude retained this editorship for fourteen years, resigning it in 1874 at the request of Thomas Carlyle, with whom he was working. [Paul 301] In 1869 Froude was elected Lord Rector of St. Andrews, defeating Benjamin Disraeli by a majority of fourteen. In 1870, following the passage of Bouverie's Act, which permitted deacons to resign from the diaconate, Froude was finally able to officially rejoin the laity.

Looking abroad (1870–1880)

Soon after the completion of the "History of England" in 1870, Froude began research for a history of Ireland. As with his earlier work, "English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century" was opinionated, favoring Protestantism over Roman Catholicism and often attempting to justify England's treatment of Ireland, particularly under Oliver Cromwell, a figure hated by the Irish. [Paul 200] Froude argued that Ireland's troubles were the result not of too much English control, but of too little; an even greater English presence, an "enlightened despotism", [Paul 210] was needed to alleviate problems that were inherent to Ireland.

In September 1872, Froude accepted an invitation to lecture in the United States, where his work was also well known. At the time, Americans (particularly Irish-Americans) generally believed in the destructiveness and injustice of England's Irish policies, [Paul 202] and Froude hoped to change their views. The lectures, widely discussed, raised the expected controversy, with opposition led by the Dominican friar Father Thomas Nicholas Burke. Opposition caused Froude to cut his trip short, and he returned to England disappointed both by his impression of America and by the results of his lectures. [Paul 227]

In England, too, Froude's Irish history had its critics, most notably William Edward Hartpole Lecky in his "History of England in the Eighteenth Century", the first volumes of which were published in 1878, and in reviews in "Macmillan's Magazine".

In February 1874, shortly before completion of "English in Ireland", Froude's wife Henrietta died, after which Froude moved from London to Wales. As a means of diversion, Froude traveled to the South African Colony of Natal, unofficially for colonial secretary Lord Carnarvon, to report on the best means of promoting a confederation of its colonies and states. On his second trip to South Africa in 1875, Froude was an official emissary, a position which conflicted at times with his habit for lecturing on his personal political opinions. [Paul 263–265, 273–274] Froude's mission was ultimately considered unsuccessful. [Paul 274] His observations on Africa were presented in a Report to the Secretary of State and a series of lectures for the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, both of which were adapted into essays for inclusion in Froude's essay collection "Short Studies on Great Subjects".

In 1876, he was appointed to two Royal Commissions, the first into the "Laws and Regulations relating to Home, Colonial, and International Copyright" [LondonGazette|issue=24316|startpage=2574|date=21 April 1876|accessdate=2008-07-08] and the second "into various matters connected with the Universities of Scotland." [LondonGazette|issue=24319|startpage=2668|date=28 April 1876|accessdate=2008-07-08]

"Life of Carlyle" controversy (1881–1903)

Froude had been a close personal friend as well as an intellectual disciple of Thomas Carlyle since 1861, and the two became even closer after the death of Carlyle's wife Jane Welsh on 21 April 1866. Reading Jane's diaries and letters, Carlyle was struck by her unhappiness and his own irritability and inconsideration for her, and he decided to atone by writing her a memorial. In 1871, Carlyle gave Froude this memorial along with a bundle of Jane's personal papers, to be published after Carlyle's death, if Froude so decided. Also, Carlyle appointed Froude one of his own literary executors, [LondonGazette|issue=24988|startpage=3208|date=24 June 1881|accessdate=2008-07-08] although he was (perhaps intentionally) ambiguous in his instructions. [Paul 302-303]

Shortly after Carlyle's death in 1881, Froude published Carlyle's "Reminiscences of Jane Welsh Carlyle". Carlyle's niece, Mrs. Alexander Carlyle, presented a note written by Carlyle in 1866 stating that the volume should not be published. On the basis of this note, she accused Froude of misconduct in publishing the volume, even though the fact that Carlyle had given the volume to Froude five years later suggested that he had changed his mind. [Paul 306–307] Mrs. A. Carlyle also made claims of ownership over her uncle's papers, and over the profits from their publication.

The conflict discouraged Froude from continuing his biography of Carlyle, as he wrote in 1881, "So much ill will has been shown me in the case of the other letters that I walk as if on hot ashes, and often curse the day when I undertook the business." [Qtd. in Paul 312] However, he was implored by Carlyle's brother James and sister Mrs. Austin to continue the work, [Paul 309] and in 1882, published the first two volumes. Froude wrote his "Life of Carlyle" according to what he understood as Carlyle's own biographical principles, describing not only Carlyle's intellectual greatness but also his personal failings. [Paul 313–314] Many readers, however, focused upon the latter, particularly Carlyle's unhappy relationship with his wife [Paul 304, 312, 320–321] which soon became a widely used illustration in discussions of the sexual politics of marriage. [Broughton "Married Life" 567] Controversy was heightened by Froude's publication of "Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle", Jane's own writings, in 1883, and the completion of the "Life of Carlyle" in 1884.

Amongst the strongest critics of Froude's biographical work was novelist Margaret Oliphant, who wrote in the "Contemporary Review" of 1883 that biography ought to be the "art of moral portrait painting" and described the publication of Jane Carlyle's papers as the "betrayal and exposure of the secret of a woman’s weakness." [Qtd. in Heidt 31–32] After Froude finished his work, ownership of the manuscript material was passed to Mrs. Alexander Carlyle, who quickly authorized alternative biographical volumes by Charles Eliot Norton that excised the offensive material. [Broughton "Married Life" 556] The controversy persisted for so long that in 1903, nearly ten years after Froude's death, his daughters decided to publish "My Relations with Carlyle", which their father had written in 1887; in this pamphlet Froude attempted to justify his decisions as biographer, yet went further than his official biography had by speculating that Carlyle's marriage was unconsummated due to impotence. [Broughton "Impotence" 503]

Later life (1885–1894)

Following completion of the "Life of Carlyle" Froude turned to travel, particularly through the British colonies, visiting South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the West Indies. From these travels, he produced two books, "Oceana, or, England and Her Colonies" (1886) and "The English in the West Indies" (1888), which mixed personal anecdotes with Froude's thoughts on the British Empire. Froude intended, with these writings, "to kindle in the public mind at home that imaginative enthusiasm for the Colonial idea of which his own heart was full." [Paul 364] During this time, Froude also wrote a historical novel, "The Two Chiefs of Dunboy", which was the least popular of his mature works. [Paul 365]

On the death of his adversary Freeman in 1892, Froude was appointed, on the recommendation of Lord Salisbury, to succeed him as Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. [LondonGazette|issue=26280|startpage=2318|date=19 April 1892|accessdate=2008-07-08] The choice was controversial, as Froude's predecessors had been amongst his harshest critics, and his works were generally considered literary works rather than books suited for academia. [Paul 382, 395] Nevertheless, his lectures were very popular, largely because of the depth and variety of Froude's experience [Paul 385–388] and he soon became a Fellow of Oriel. Froude lectured mainly on the English Reformation, "English Sea-Men in the Sixteenth Century," and Erasmus. The demanding lecture schedule was too much for the aging Froude, however, and in 1894 he retired to Devonshire. He died on 20 October 1894.

Works

Fiction

*"Shadows of the Clouds" (1847)
*"The Nemesis of Faith" (1849)
*"The Two Chiefs of Dunboy" (1889)

Non-Fiction

*"History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada" (1856-1870)
*"Short Studies on Great Subjects" (1867-1882)
**"The Oxford Counter-Reformation" (1881)
*"English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century" (1872-1874)
*"Caesar:A Sketch" (1879) (Biography of Julius Caesar)
*"Bunyan" (1880) (Biography of John Bunyan)
*"Life of Carlyle" (1882-1884)
*"Luther: A Short Biography" (1883) (Biography of Martin Luther)
*"Oceana, or, England and Her Colonies" (1886)
*"The English in the West Indies" or "The Bow of Ulysses" (1888)
*"Lord Beaconsfield" (1890) (Biography of Benjamin Disraeli)
*"Divorce of Catherine of Aragon" (1891)
*"English Sea-Men in the Sixteenth Century" (1895)
*"Life and Letters of Erasmus" (1895)
*"My Relations with Carlyle" (Written 1887, published 1903)

Translations

* Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - "Elective Affinities" ("Die Wahlverwandtschaften") (1854, published anonymously)

References

*cite book |last=Ashton |first=Rosemary |editor=Jasper and Wright |title=The Critical Spirit and the Will to Believe |date=1989 |publisher=St. Martins |location=New York |isbn= |pages= |chapter=Doubting Clerics: From James Anthony Froude to Robert Elsmere via George Eliot

*Citation |last=Badger |first=Kingsbury| publication-date=1952 |title=The Ordeal of Anthony Froude, Protestant Historian| periodical= Modern Language Quarterly |volume=13 |pages=41-55

*Citation |last= Broughton |first= Trev Lynn| publication-date=1997 |title= Impotence, Biography, and the Froude-Carlyle Controversy: "Revelations on Ticklish Topics" |periodical= Journal of the History of Sexuality |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=502-536

*Citation |last=Broughton |first=Trev Lynn |publication-date=1995 |title=The Froude-Carlyle Embroilment: Married Life as a Literary Problem |periodical=Victorian Studies: A Journal of the Humanities, Arts and Sciences |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=551-85

*cite book |title=An Ecclesiastical History of England: The Victorian Church |last=Chadwick |first=Owen |authorlink=Owen Chadwick|year=1966 |publisher=Oxford UP |location=Oxford

*cite book | title=James Anthony Froude, A Biography |last= Dunn |first=Waldo Hilary |year=1963 |publisher = Clarendon Press |location=Oxford

*Citation |last=Gilbert |first=Elliot L. |publication-date=1991 |title=Rescuing Reality: Carlyle, Froude, and Biographical Truth-Telling |periodical=Victorian Studies: A Journal of the Humanities, Arts and Sciences |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=295-314

*Citation |last=Heidt |first=Sarah J. |publication-date=2006 |title=The Materials for a "Life": Collaboration, Publication, and the Carlyles' Afterlives |periodical=Nineteenth-Century Contexts |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=21-33

*cite book |title=J. Anthony Froude: The Last Great Undiscovered Victorian |last=Markus |first=Julia |year=2005 |publisher=Scribner |location=New York

*Citation |last=Minnick |first=Wayne C. |publication-date=1951 |title=The Froude-Burke Controversy |periodical=Speech Monographs |volume=18 |pages=31-36

*cite book |title=The Life of Froude |last=Paul |first=Herbert |authorlink=Herbert Paul |year=1906 |publisher= Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York| url=http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14992

*cite book |title=More Nineteenth Century Studies: A Group of Honest Doubters |last=Willey |first=Basil |authorlink=Basil Willey |year=1956 |publisher=Chatto and Windus |location=London |chapter=J.A. Froude

Notes

External links

*
* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=James%20Anthony%20Froude%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts Works by James Anthony Froude] at Internet Archive
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=Froude&LinkID=mp01690 Images of Froude at the National Portrait Gallery (UK)]

Источник: James Anthony Froude