The Romances of William Morris

While much has been written about William Morris, little attention has been paid to his romances, which have generally been dismissed as ‘escapist’ or best smiled upon as self-indulgent fantasy. This 1987 book sets out to examine more carefully the premises of such dismissive terminology, looking at the ways in which our sense of the ‘escapism’ of Morris’s knack for fairy-tale writing can be modified or expanded when seen in relation to the development of his imagination in other spheres, both political and creative. His adoption of romance, with its very specific and highly formalized demands, and his use of medieval themes, enabled him to explore, sometimes with freshness and vivacity, the controversial issues of his age. Dr Hodgson’s argument will be of interest to Morris specialists, but also accessible to those not familiar with his romances, since she is careful to describe the stories before contextualizing them.