The Last of the Race: The Growth of a Myth from Milton to DarwinThis is an innovative and wide-ranging study of the myth of 'The Last of the Race' as it develops in a selection of literary and non-literary texts from the late seventeenth to late nineteenth centuries. The perennial fascination with the end of the world has given rise to many 'last men', from the ancient myths of Noah and Deucalion to contemporary stories of nuclear holocaust. Endangered peoples such as the Maasai or Bush People continue to attract intense interest. Fiona J. Stafford begins with Milton and ends with Darwin, exploring the myth-making of their texts in the light of contemporary literary, scientific, political, and religious views. Chapters on Milton, Burnet, Defoe, Macpherson, Cowper, Wordsworth, Byron, Mary Shelley, Fenimore Cooper, Bulwer-Lytton, and Darwin combine to form an important account of the traces of this most resonant of cultural preoccupations, providing a distinguished contribution to cultural history as well as to literary studies. |
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Page 60
... early modern period . Late sixteenth- and early seventeenth - century Britain saw an extraordinary increase in social mobility , for a number of complicated factors . 14 The dissolution of the monasteries had far - reaching social and ...
... early modern period . Late sixteenth- and early seventeenth - century Britain saw an extraordinary increase in social mobility , for a number of complicated factors . 14 The dissolution of the monasteries had far - reaching social and ...
Page 168
... early friends are fled , How cheerless feels the heart alone , When all its former hopes are dead ! ( ' I Would I were a Careless Child ' , 25-8 ) Many of the feelings expressed in Byron's early poems suggest a personal ' age of ...
... early friends are fled , How cheerless feels the heart alone , When all its former hopes are dead ! ( ' I Would I were a Careless Child ' , 25-8 ) Many of the feelings expressed in Byron's early poems suggest a personal ' age of ...
Page 169
... early preoccupation with the past seems largely destructive : Ye scenes of my childhood , whose lov'd recollection Embitters the present , compar'd with the past . ( ' On a Distant View of ... Harrow ' , 1-2 ) Throughout the early work ...
... early preoccupation with the past seems largely destructive : Ye scenes of my childhood , whose lov'd recollection Embitters the present , compar'd with the past . ( ' On a Distant View of ... Harrow ' , 1-2 ) Throughout the early work ...
Contents
List of Illustrations X | 1 |
The First Last Man? Thomas Burnet and the Revolution | 34 |
Robinson Crusoe as Sole Survivor | 56 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam ancient Apocalyptic appears attitude become Beddoes belief biblical Britain Bulwer Burnet Byron character Christian contemporary Cooper Creation Crusoe's Daniel Defoe dark Darwin death decline Defoe Despite destruction earth eighteenth-century emerges emphasis English Essay eternal Eternal Return extinction father feelings fiction Fingal future grief human idea imaginative Indian individual influence inspired isolation James Fenimore Cooper last bard last-of-the-race myth linear literature London loss Lyell Lyrical Ballads Macpherson's mankind Mary Shelley's millenarian Milton modern Mohicans narrative natural Newstead Abbey nineteenth century notion novel Omegarus original Ossian Oxford Paradise Lost past poem poet poetry political Pompeii Prisoner of Chillon progress psychological race reader Revolution Robinson Crusoe Romantic ruin rural seems seen sense Shelley significant society sole survivor species suggests survival symbol theory Thomas Thomas Burnet Thomas Lovell Beddoes traditional universal vanished vision vols William Wordsworth Wordsworth Yardley Oak