Tom Arnold (academic)
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| Thomas Arnold | |
|---|---|
| Born | 30 November 1823 Staines |
| Died | 12 November 1900 (aged 76) Dublin |
| Nationality | British |
| Writing period | Victorian |
| Genres | non-fiction |
| Subjects | History of literature |
| Spouse(s) | Julia Sorell (1826-1888) |
| Children | nine children, of whom five lived to adulthood |
| Relative(s) | Thomas Arnold (father), Matthew Arnold (brother), Mary Augusta Ward (daughter), Julian Huxley (grandson), Aldous Huxley (grandson) |
Tom Arnold (1823 – 1900), also known as Thomas Arnold the Younger, was a British literary scholar.
Contents |
[edit] Life
He was the second son of the Rugby School headmaster Thomas Arnold and his elder brother was the poet Matthew Arnold. After taking a first at Oxford University, Arnold grew discontented with Victorian Britain and attempted to take up farming in New Zealand. Failing to make a success of this career, Arnold in 1850 moved to Tasmania, having been invited to take the job of Inspector of Schools by Governor William Denison. Soon after arriving in Hobart, Tasmania, he fell in love with and married Julia Sorell, grand-daughter of former Governor William Sorell. They had nine children (four of whom died young), among them Mary, who became a novelist, and Julia, who married Leonard Huxley, the son of Thomas Huxley, and gave birth to Julian and Aldous Huxley. After being widowed in 1888, Arnold in 1890 married for a second time, to Josephine Benison.
While in Tasmania Arnold converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, a move which angered his Protestant wife sufficiently to cause her to smash the windows of the chapel during his confirmation. At the time Tasmania would not employ Catholics in senior civil service positions, and so in 1857 the family moved back to England. Arnold took a job teaching English Literature at the Catholic University in Dublin, and wrote A Manual of English Literature (1862), which became a standard textbook. He resigned from the university in 1862 to become head of Classics at the Oratory School in Birmingham. In 1865 he left, after arguing with Cardinal Newman over his choice of an unorthodox theology book which Arnold gave as a prize to his students.
For a time Arnold returned to the Church of England, and lectured at Oxford. He edited a number of important literary works, including Beowulf. In 1876, on the eve of the election of the Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, he converted back to Catholicism, which may have been what cost him the election. After a period of financial hardship, Arnold returned to Dublin in 1882 as professor of English Literature at University College, teaching to the end of his life in 1900. One of his last students was James Joyce.
[edit] Publications
[edit] As author
- A Manual of English Literature, Historical and Critical. London: Longman & Co., 1862 (much reprinted to 1897).
- Chaucer to Wordsworth: a Short History of English Literature to the present day. London: Thomas Murby, 1870. 2nd ed. 1875.
- Catholic Higher Education in Ireland. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1897.
- Notes on Beowulf. London: Longmans, Green, 1898.
[edit] As editor
- Select English Works of John Wycliffe from Original Manuscripts. 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1869–1871.
- Selections from Addison’s Papers contributed to the Spectator. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875.
- Beowulf: an Heroic Poem of the Eighth Century, with a translation. London: Longmans, Green, 1876.
- Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum. The History of the English, by Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, from A.D. 55 to A.D. 1154. Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages ("Rolls Series") 74. London: Longman & Co., 1879.
- English Poetry and Prose: a collection of illustrative passages from the writings of English authors, commencing in the Anglo-Saxon period, and brought down to the present time. 2nd edition. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1882.
- Symeonis monachi opera omnia. 2 vols. Rolls Series 75. London: Longman & Co., 1882-1885.
- Edward Hyde, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England. Book VI. Second edition, 1894.
- Together with William E. Addis he compiled A Catholic Dictionary. First edition, London: Kegan Paul & Co., 1884. Much reissued.
[edit] References
- Bernard Bergonzi, “Arnold, Thomas (1823–1900),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Available online to subscribers. Accessed 31 December 2007.
- Bernard Bergonzi, A Victorian Wanderer The Life of Thomas Arnold the Younger. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-925741-8. OUP link.
- James Bertram, ed., New Zealand Letters of Thomas Arnold the younger, with further letters from Van Diemen’s land and letters of Arthur Hugh Clough, 1847-1851. London and Wellington: University of Auckland, Oxford University Press, 1966.
- Julian Huxley, Memories. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1970.
