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Illustration of 19th century London slums by Gustave Doré
The City of Dreadful Night is a long poem by the Scottish poet James "B.V." Thomson, written between 1870 and 1873, and published in the National Reformer in 1874,[1] then, in 1880, in a book entitled The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems.[2] The poem is noted for the pessimistic philosophy that it expresses.[3] It has been argued, that the city described in the poem is based on London.[4]
Reception
The poem, despite its insistently bleak tone, won the praise of George Meredith and of George Saintsbury, who in A History of Nineteenth Century Literature wrote that "what saves Thomson is the perfection with which he expresses the negative and hopeless side of the sense of mystery."[5]
References
- ^ Sullivan, Dick. ""Poison Mixed With Gall": James Thomson's The City of Dreadful Night — A Personal View". Retrieved 2008-09-29.
- ^ Thomson, James (1880). The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems. London: Reeves and Turner.
- ^ Salt, Henry S. (August 1896). "Among the Authors: The Poet of Pessimism". The Vegetarian Review: 360–362.
- ^ Cheng, Chu-chueh. "The Importance of Being London: Looking for Signs of the Metropolis in James Thomson's City of Dreadful Night". Literary London Society. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Saintsbury, George (1906). A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895). London: The Macmillan Company. p. 298.
External links
Works related to The City of Dreadful Night at Wikisource
Quotations related to James Thomson (B.V.) at Wikiquote
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- The City of Dreadful Night at Project Gutenberg
The City of Dreadful Night public domain audiobook at LibriVox
