A Philosophical View of Reform
Encyclopedia
A Philosophical View of Reform is a major prose work by Percy Bysshe Shelley
written in 1819-20 and first published in 1920 by Oxford University Press
. The political essay is Shelley's longest prose work.
, which occurred on 16 August 1819, in St. Peter's Field near Manchester, where a peaceful demonstration seeking parliamentary reform was attacked by militia.
The bookseller Richard Carlile
had been found guilty of blasphemy by a jury in November, 1819 for printing an edition of The Age of Reason
(1794-6) by Thomas Paine
. The “Six Acts” had been promulgated in December which placed restrictions on public gatherings and freedom of the press.
In was during this unstable political period in England in late 1819 when Shelley started writing A Philosophical View of Reform. Shelley told John and Maria Gisborne
on 6 November: "I have deserted the odorous gardens of literature to journey across the great sandy desert of Politics."
Shelley proposed five reforms:
Shelley opposed revolution, advocating instead gradual change through non-violence. He argued that individual and institutional reform went hand in hand. He maintained that poets, writers, and philosophers would stimulate reforms of the social institutions that would benefit everyone in society.
Shelley informed his publisher Charles Ollier on 19 December 1819 that he sought A Philosophical View of Reform "to be an instructive and readable book, appealing from the passions to the reason of men", informing him that he would not finish it "this season".
On 26 May 1820 he asked Leigh Hunt if he could find a publisher for the work: "Do you know any bookseller who wd publish for me an octavo volume entitled 'A philosophical View of Reform'. It is boldly but temperately written – & I think readable – It is intended for a kind of standard book for the philosophical reformers."
Mary Shelley
had a transcript made of the manuscript with plans to publish the work. The political essay remained unpublished, however, until 1920 when it appeared for the first time in print in an edition published by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, with an introduction and appendix by Thomas William Rolleston.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
written in 1819-20 and first published in 1920 by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
. The political essay is Shelley's longest prose work.
Analysis
Shelley composed A Philosophical View of Reform between November, 1819 and 20 May 1820, meant to address political developments in England at that time. He advocated non-violence and a moderate response to the represseive measures imposed by the British government. One of the events he addressed was the Peterloo MassacrePeterloo Massacre
The Peterloo Massacre occurred at St Peter's Field, Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 that had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation....
, which occurred on 16 August 1819, in St. Peter's Field near Manchester, where a peaceful demonstration seeking parliamentary reform was attacked by militia.
The bookseller Richard Carlile
Richard Carlile
Richard Carlile was an important agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom.-Early life :...
had been found guilty of blasphemy by a jury in November, 1819 for printing an edition of The Age of Reason
The Age of Reason
The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology is a deistic pamphlet, written by eighteenth-century British radical and American revolutionary Thomas Paine, that criticizes institutionalized religion and challenges the legitimacy of the Bible, the central sacred text of...
(1794-6) by Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
. The “Six Acts” had been promulgated in December which placed restrictions on public gatherings and freedom of the press.
In was during this unstable political period in England in late 1819 when Shelley started writing A Philosophical View of Reform. Shelley told John and Maria Gisborne
Maria Gisborne
Maria Gisborne was a friend of Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley.The daughter of an English merchant at Constantinople named James, was born in 1770, apparently in England. When she was eight years old, her mother, who had been left in poverty, resolved to rejoin her husband, and sailed for...
on 6 November: "I have deserted the odorous gardens of literature to journey across the great sandy desert of Politics."
Shelley proposed five reforms:
- abolish the national debt.
- disband the standing army.
- abolish sinecures.
- abolish tithes, and make all religions, all forms of opinion regarding the origin and government of the universe, equal under the law.
- make justice inexpensive, certain, and speedy, and extend the institution of juries to every possible occasion of jurisprudence.
Shelley opposed revolution, advocating instead gradual change through non-violence. He argued that individual and institutional reform went hand in hand. He maintained that poets, writers, and philosophers would stimulate reforms of the social institutions that would benefit everyone in society.
Shelley informed his publisher Charles Ollier on 19 December 1819 that he sought A Philosophical View of Reform "to be an instructive and readable book, appealing from the passions to the reason of men", informing him that he would not finish it "this season".
On 26 May 1820 he asked Leigh Hunt if he could find a publisher for the work: "Do you know any bookseller who wd publish for me an octavo volume entitled 'A philosophical View of Reform'. It is boldly but temperately written – & I think readable – It is intended for a kind of standard book for the philosophical reformers."
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
had a transcript made of the manuscript with plans to publish the work. The political essay remained unpublished, however, until 1920 when it appeared for the first time in print in an edition published by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, with an introduction and appendix by Thomas William Rolleston.
Sources
- Sandy, Mark. "A Philosophical View of Reform". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 accessed 20 July 2011.
- Ripley, Brian. "Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'A Philosophical View of Reform'": www.shelley.235.ca/
- Shelley's Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family: http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/a-philosophical-view-of-reform#Description
- "A Philosophical View of Reform." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 20 July 2011.
- Walker, A. Stanley. "Peterloo, Shelley and Reform." PMLA, Vol. 40, No. 1 (March, 1925), pp. 128-164.
- Cameron, Kenneth Neill. "The Social Philosophy of Shelley." The Sewanee Review, Vol. 50, No. 4 (October-December, 1942), pp. 457-466.
- Pulos, C.E. "Shelley and Malthus". PMLA, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Mar., 1952), pp. 113-124.
- Franta, Andrew. "Shelley and the Poetics of Political Indirection". Poetics Today, 2001, 22, 4, pp. 765-793.
- Abana, Yuxuf Akwo. The Shelleys and empire: 'Prometheus Unbound', 'Frankenstein', 'A Philosophical View of Reform', and the modern African fictions of liberation. PhD. dissertation, University of Arizona, 2006: http://www.scribd.com/doc/22141988/The-Shelleys-and-empire-Prometheus-Unbound-Frankenstein-A-Philosophical-View-of-Reform-and-the-modern-African-fictions-of-liberation-Percy
- Foot, Paul, ed. Shelley's Revolutionary Year: Shelley's Political Poems and the Essay "A Philosophical View of Reform". With an Introduction by Paul Foot. Redwords, 1990.
- Shelley, Percy Bysshe. A Philosophical View of Reform. University Press of the Pacific, 2004.