Reviews

Reviewer Dione Coumbe

Today when Lord Alfred Tennyson is mentioned, a vision of a Victorian gentleman appears. He is of venerable age, redolent of the Establishment, a Poet Laureate. His verses, half remembered by the older generation, who chanted in unison during English Literature the rhythmic cadences of ‘The Lady of Shallot’, is today passé. A lingering remnant of the old British Empire, synonymous with Disraeli, Gladstone, Gordon of Khartoum and Kipling.

As the older generation look back at the elders of their youth, they are no different from children today who will always see their grandparents as in their dotage. Were they ever really young? To a new generation, this seems almost incredible.

Thus it is with Tennyson, until now. Garrett Jones has, with exquisite prose, analysed the youthful love of Alfred for his friend Arthur. With prodigious research and analysis of the original poem entitled ‘In Memoriam’, written after Arthur’s death, Jones builds a picture of a striving for excellence, bolstered by the unselfish devotion each had for the other.

Tennyson and Hallam were raised in widely divergent ways. The former, a country boy schooled by clergymen, the latter a sophisticated product of Eton. They were to meet at Cambridge University, their four years together until Arthur’s death reverberated throughout the remainder of Tennyson’s long life.

As if ‘In Memoriam’ were not enough as the poem gaining him the crown of Poet Laureate, Alfred named a son Hallam. It immortalised their love, with the tradition carried through succeeding generations to the present.

Whilst Alfred was uncompromising and unashamed of their mutual affection, Arthur was more circumspect, having an homophobic father and a career to create in the legal profession he hated. When these two young men, teenagers, were friends, homosexuality was a crime punishable by hanging. They both had good reason to keep their ‘open’ secret. Garrett Jones doubts if their cerebral passion was ever translated into physical expression, neither being likely to break the final taboo. They knew how much scandal had attached to Byron forcing him to leave Britain, when his sexual adventures became public.

Garrett Jones does not explore, one hopes he will at some future date, the rationale behind the Draconian penalties enforced against male lovers. England, until comparatively recently was ruled by a male, aristocratic élite. Most of the government, the House of Lords, the Commons had been educated by the public school system. This, as is well documented, lent itself to bullying, male on male sexual abuse and turned a ‘blind eye’ to consenting homosexual encounters.

This state of affairs gave rise to Ruth Adam’s comment in her book, ‘A Women’s Place’, when bewildered Victorian women asked their husbands, “Why, if you knew what it was like, did you send Johnny there?” They had the greatest difficulty reconciling their husbands’ acceptance of the prevailing conditions in public schools with the power they wielded, yet failed to ameliorate the law. Homosexuality was known as ‘the English Disease’ by the French long before Aubrey Beardsley, Oscar Wilde and the fin de siecle.

Jones hints at these elements in the background, concentrating on the growth of their interdependence. This is achieved by a sensitive and gentle evocation of the letters Arthur and his contemporaries wrote and the underlying text of Alfred’s poetry. Alfred never wrote letters if it could possibly be avoided.

What emerges is a story of a love so concentrated, so powerful, Arthur remained in Alfred’s life through a happy marriage and all the exalted heights he subsequently achieved.

Garrett Jones makes the case effectively Tennyson was a pioneer and milestone on the pathway to liberated male sexuality. He never denied his love for Arthur, but both were wise enough to distinguish this from physical sex. Not doing so was the downfall much later of Oscar Wilde in a country still publicly avowing such attractions should never occur.

‘Alfred And Arthur’ is a consummate work of scholarship, insight and tender logic and a very welcome addition to the literature discussing the culture, mores and ethics of Victorian England.

View Synopsis View Sample View Information Purchase Options