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

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Biographical Materials

• Biography

Works

• Poetry
• The City of Dreadful Night
• 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"
• Literary Criticism

Cultural Contexts

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

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, Sterling

Theme and Technique

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

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Last modified 20 February 2007