37 min
Episode One: William Morris and The Wood Beyond the World. Beyond the Labyrinth
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- Books
Morris at age 53
In 1894, William Morris wrote a tract for the Socialist Democratic Federation journal Justice called “How I Became a Socialist.” While the article mostly concerns social causes, Morris at one point makes a remarkable statement that captures the essence of our interest in this brilliant Victorian:
“Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life has been and is hatred of modern civilisation.”
While few have heard of Morris today, if one reads around in the 19th century, in poetry, essays, fantasy, or the various writings of the Arts and Crafts movement, Morris is a towering figure who remains fascinating. The two impulses in this statement–the desire to produce beautiful things and the hatred of modern civilisation–reflect his varied interests. He was a leading figure in the British Arts and Crafts movement, not only designing furniture and textiles but using and teaching traditional craftsmanship in his own manufacturing company. His company and his intellectual pursuits constituted a revolt against the growing use of mass production and indeed against the whole of the modern civilisation. They are a driving force in his writing, for instance in the deliberate medievalism of his novels, through which he became the first recognized fantasy author in the English canon, and in his social criticism, where he advocated for common people and for a socialist revision of modern life.
We live in a time when the verities of modern life seem less and less reliable, a time when our shared assumptions about how society works seem one by one to be proven wrong. When we consider the fact that many of the bedrock ideologies of our time–mass production, global free-market capitalism, and consumerism, to name a few–date from the 19th century, we are not surprised to find our own doubts and discomforts foretold to us by Morris. His unease mirrors our own.
Today we aim to explore Morris, and especially his novel The Wood Beyond the World which he published two years before his death in 1896. We are no experts, but find his work interesting and evocative of many questions and connections in literary and social history. Let’s explore a few . . .
Learn more about William Morris:
Many of Morris’ writings (including The Wood Beyond the World) are available for free at Project Gutenberg.
The Wikipedia entry on Morris is helpful.
The William Morris Society (U.S. affiliate)
Morris at age 53
In 1894, William Morris wrote a tract for the Socialist Democratic Federation journal Justice called “How I Became a Socialist.” While the article mostly concerns social causes, Morris at one point makes a remarkable statement that captures the essence of our interest in this brilliant Victorian:
“Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life has been and is hatred of modern civilisation.”
While few have heard of Morris today, if one reads around in the 19th century, in poetry, essays, fantasy, or the various writings of the Arts and Crafts movement, Morris is a towering figure who remains fascinating. The two impulses in this statement–the desire to produce beautiful things and the hatred of modern civilisation–reflect his varied interests. He was a leading figure in the British Arts and Crafts movement, not only designing furniture and textiles but using and teaching traditional craftsmanship in his own manufacturing company. His company and his intellectual pursuits constituted a revolt against the growing use of mass production and indeed against the whole of the modern civilisation. They are a driving force in his writing, for instance in the deliberate medievalism of his novels, through which he became the first recognized fantasy author in the English canon, and in his social criticism, where he advocated for common people and for a socialist revision of modern life.
We live in a time when the verities of modern life seem less and less reliable, a time when our shared assumptions about how society works seem one by one to be proven wrong. When we consider the fact that many of the bedrock ideologies of our time–mass production, global free-market capitalism, and consumerism, to name a few–date from the 19th century, we are not surprised to find our own doubts and discomforts foretold to us by Morris. His unease mirrors our own.
Today we aim to explore Morris, and especially his novel The Wood Beyond the World which he published two years before his death in 1896. We are no experts, but find his work interesting and evocative of many questions and connections in literary and social history. Let’s explore a few . . .
Learn more about William Morris:
Many of Morris’ writings (including The Wood Beyond the World) are available for free at Project Gutenberg.
The Wikipedia entry on Morris is helpful.
The William Morris Society (U.S. affiliate)
37 min