Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922) was one of the most interesting,
colourful writers of Victorian England. As an independent man of
means, he led the tempestuous life of an aristocratic, Byronic rebel.
His writing was intensely personal, a series of emotional experiences
influenced his thinking on religion, politics and literature. He was
a diplomat, a poet, a traveller, a diarist, a religious doubter, an
amorist, a cultured artist of Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic tastes, a
fashionable squire of the Elizabethan type, an amateur Orientalist
with unconventional sympathies, a traditionalist promoting Mediaeval
values, a modernist who championed several lost causes, playing many
roles with a deep sense of mission. His paradoxical character reflects
the noblest ideals and the most glaring weaknesses of his age.
This thesis is an appreciative study of his creative works in prose
and verse, and an attempt to assess his stature as a pioneer and a
prophet. The method adopted is that of a close study of the texts.
A comparative approach is developed in the analysis of Blunt's work as
a poet and a translator. Historical events and biographical elements
are used wherever they shed light on his writings. A brief survey of
the Victorian interest in the Arab world and the Eastern question, with
reference to the writings and attitudes of travellers/shows that the
East came to mean different things to different people at the height of
Britain's imperialist expansion. A comparison of these attitudes and
their backgrounds in Chapter I concludes that Blunt's understanding
of the East was unique in its accuracy. The impact of the East and
its culture on Blunt's character and attitudes was permanent. These are
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studied in the writings of Blunt as a man of action, particularly in
his Secret History series. Blunt's rendering of Arabic texts is studied
in Chapter IV, in comparison to the translations of professional
Orientalists like Edward Lane, William Jones, and A.J. Arberry. Blunt's
success seen against the failure of a number of other English poets to
reproduce Arabic poetry, makes his Moallakat a unique contribution to
English literature.
Although Blunt belongs to the Romantic tradition, he has assimilated
other traditions, Elizabethan as well as Pre-Raphaelite, neo-classical as
well as modern, Tennysonian as well as Arabic. Yet he remained independent
and highly indiVidual. His experiments in the field of the sonnet and
his assonance in rhyme are analysed and their sources traced in both
Arabic and English precedents and traditions in Chapter II.
For the first time, Chapter III offers a detailed contextual study
of Blunt's three dramatic works, the anti-imperialist Extravaganza,
The Bride of the Nile , the "social problem" play of Ideas, The Little
Left Hand and the drama of passion, Fand. The influences of Shakespeare,
Arabic and Islamic history, Shavian and Ibsenesque elements are traced.
The plays are seen as an attempt by Blunt to propagate his own opinions
in the fields of love, marriage, religious, social and political reform.
Blunt's volumin diaries record his attitudes to the major
issues of his time, his intimate knowledge of the key figures in both
Europe and the East, his deep insight into their characters, and his
now vindicated interpretation of events. Chapter V stresses the
importance of this work as a mine of information, of perennial value
to the student of Victorian and Edwardian times. Blunt's opinions and
indiscretions are shown to be relevant in his capacity as a man of
letters, a man of the world, or a political observer~
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Blunt's interest in Islam made him write a book which influenced
both Muslim reformers and English policy-makers. The development of
his religious thought is charted in Chapter VI, where his beliefs
are analysed in the light of his attitudes to culture, evolution and
political revival, together with his streak of superstition. His
agnostic materialism and his attack on religious hypocrisy are
analysed; and Blunt, as an honest doubter, is shown to be the product
of his age.