From country lanes to thatch roofs, a stroll through the enduring appeal of the nineteenth-century trope of rural English bliss.
A Sweet View explores how writers and artists in the nineteenth century shaped the English countryside as a partly imaginary idyll, with its distinctive repertoire of idealized scenery: the village green, the old country churchyard, hedgerows and cottages, scenic variety concentrated into a small compass, snugness and comfort. The book draws on a very wide range of contemporary sources and features some of the key makers of the "South Country" rural idyll, including Samuel Palmer, Myles Birket Foster, and Richard Jefferies. The legacy of the idyll still influences popular perceptions of the essential character of a certain kind of English landscape-indeed for Henry James that imagery constituted "the very essence of England" itself. As A Sweet View makes clear, the countryside idyll forged over a century ago is still with us today.
- ISBN10 1789144981
- ISBN13 9781789144987
- Publish Date 18 October 2021
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 28 November 2023
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Reaktion Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 356
- Language English