"The Well at the World's End" (1896) by William Morris features Ralph, prince of Upmeads, as he quests for the Well at the World's End. Very influential, arguably the first fantasy novel whose world has a completely invented geography distinct from our own. #BookologyThursday#BookChatWeekly
#Socialism#Romanticism#Ecosocialism#WilliamMorris: "DANIEL FINN: Morris might well be seen in today’s political terminology as a pioneer of ecosocialism. How did his understanding of the processes of urbanization and industrialization that were transforming Britain and the wider world in the late nineteenth century differ from the view that was held by many of his Marxist contemporaries?
MATTHEW BEAUMONT: I think the key thing in this regard is Morris’s Romanticism. He was very much a Romantic, and he remained one. There’s a sense in which Marx himself was a Romantic, having grown up in an earlier generation in Germany that was influenced by the Romantics and written Romantic poetry in his youth. Unlike Marx, however, Morris had very little handle on economics.
He was rather baffled and intimidated by economic language and analysis, and he cleaved very closely to his Romantic affiliations, which came down from the Romantic poets through Carlyle, Ruskin, and others. This formed a kind of anti-capitalist critique that in some cases, such as that of Carlyle, took a reactionary form, though not in the case of Morris. In that entire tradition, there is an identification of nature with the precapitalist past and with some kind of alternative to capitalism." https://jacobin.com/2023/10/william-morris-ecosocialism-romanticism-labor-news-from-nowhere
Can't even begin on how deeply I have loved some of her novels, esp "A Children's Book", 'Possession', & even the random #WilliamMorris non-fiction!
#AChildren'sBook was one of the most perfect novels, with such delicious detailing & effortless writing. You could see her delight in storytelling in each character, the history, & narrative thread.
Her books just demonstrated what deep research, & slow, deliberate writing could do for a story.
Today in Labor History March 24, 1834: William Morris, British author, textile designer and revolutionary socialist was born on this date. He wrote the utopian novel “News From Nowhere” and founded the Socialist League in 1874. He was influenced by both Marxism and anarchism.
He turned from his class
and he made the lonely journey
through the river of fire
and when he reached the other side
he joined the ones who had nothing
the poor and the hungry
and their cause was his
til the day that he died
for he saw that
in them
a spark lay hidden
and he saw that
in them
a hope still burned
for the great change coming
when the shoddy rule of mammon
would be shattered like a hulk
that the storm has overturned