John Keble had an immense influence on nineteenth-century literature and culture. A founding figure of the Oxford Movement, he was mythologized as the living embodiment of Christian ideals. His 1827 volume of verse The Christian Year was the best-selling book of poetry in the Victorian era while his lectures as Oxford Professor of Poetry were highly influential. Those indebted to his ideas include figures as diverse as John Henry Newman, Christina Rossetti and Alfred Tennyson.

Despite his evident importance, Keble's social, political and cultural impacts on his times have, until recently, been significantly underestimated. This interdisciplinary volume is a major contribution to our understanding of the importance of Keble's life and work. It provides an entirely fresh perspective on Keble's writings, bringing critical work on Keble into the twenty-first century, in particular, demonstrating the importance of his contribution to nineteenth-century literature, politics and theology. Including works by a number of prominent scholars, 'John Keble in Context' provides a wide range of perspectives on Keble's place in politics and religion, his writings and his influence on his literary heirs and successors. This unique and timely volume offers the first major reassessment of Keble's work for several decades, and a comprehensive introduction to this key figure. John Keble in Context will appeal to students of Victorian literature, history, religion and culture.

Kirstie Blair has taught at the University of Glasgow since February 2005, having previously taught at Keble College and St Peter's College, Oxford. Her primary research interests lie in Victorian literature, particularly poetry and poetic form, literature and medicine, and literature and religion.

Anthem Nineteenth-Century Series

Acknowledgements; Contributors; Preface; Introduction; PART I. Reconsiderations: Keble's Place in Tractarian Politics and Religion: 1. Keble's Creweian Oration of 1839: The Idea of a Christian University; 2. 'The Duty of the State': Keble; the Tractarians and Establishments; 3. John Keble, National Apostasy, and the Myths of 14 July; John Keble and the Ethos of the Oxford Movement; PART II. Reading Keble's Writings: The Poet and the Pastor: 5. Ways of Reading 1825: Leisure, Curiosity, and Morbid Eagerness; 6. 'National Apostasy', Tracts For The Times, and Plain Sermons: Keble's Tractarian Prose; 7. Lyra Innocentium (1846) and its Contexts; PART III. Influence and Resistance: Literary Heirs and Successors: 8. 'Healing Relief... Without Detriment to Modest Reserve...': Keble, Women's Poetry and Victorian Cultural Theory; 9. 'Her Silence Speaks': Keble's Female Heirs; 10. 'For Rigorous Teachers Seized My Youth': Thomas Arnold, John Keble and the Juvenilia of Arthur Hugh Clough and Matthew Arnold; 11. In Memoriam and The Christian Year; 12. 'A Handmaid to the Church': How John Keble Shaped the Career of Charlotte Yonge, the 'Novelist of the Oxford Movement'