James Thomson (B.V.), 1834-1882 (original) (raw)

Biographical Materials

• Biography

Works

• Poetry
  • The City of Dreadful Night
    • E-text at Project Gutenberg
    • Introduction
    • Thomson and suicide
• Satires on Religion
  • "Jesus Christ Our Great Exemplar"
  • "Christmas Eve in the Upper Circles"
  • "The Story of a Famous Old Jewish Firm"
• Satires on Monarchy
  • "A Commission of Inquiry on Royalty"

Cultural Contexts

• Thomson on the Atonement
• Religion: British Atheism
• Religion: Shelley's The Necessity of Atheism (Infidels.org)
• Religion: Charles Bradlaugh
• Philosophy: David Hume (material needed)
• Politics: Radical anti-monarchism (material needed)

Literary Relations

• Tennyson's In Memoriam
• Swinburne's anti-religious poetry
• Swinburne's "Before a Crucifix"
• Rossetti, religion, and loss of faith
• Victorian loss-of-faith novels: Carlyle, Gaskell, Newman

Theme and Technique

• Image and symbol: Human beings shiprecked and castaway
• Satire

Last modified 25 April 2015