Wordsworth, War & Waterloo, 2015 publication edited by Professor Simon Bainbridge and Jeff Cowton, Curator of the Wordsworth Trust

The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were enormously important for William Wordsworth, as they were for many other writers and artists of the Romantic period. This collection of essays tells the story of Wordsworth’s changing responses to the Anglo-French conflict that began in 1793 and culminated in Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in June 1815. It examines how war shaped Wordsworth’s ideas about his own role as a poet and shows how he came to define himself in relation to the major military and naval figures of the period – Admiral Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte. With essays on Dorothy Wordsworth and the conflict’s wider social impact, this book also reveals how the war’s dramatic events impinged on the lives of people across Britain, including women and children. The book is richly illustrated with a number of important paintings, drawings and cartoons inspired by the war, bringing together Benjamin Robert Haydon’s portraits of Wordsworth, Wellington and Napoleon, a range of satirical cartoons by James Gillray, and includes an essay discussing J.M.W. Turner’s visit to the battlefield of Waterloo. 

Contributors: Professor Simon Bainbridge, Professor Paul F Betz, Pamela Woof, Dr David Blayney Brown, Professor Richard Matlak, Professor Philip Shaw, Jenny Uglow and Donald Coverdale. 


Exhibition: Wordsworth, War & Waterloo.  The Wordsworth Museum, Grasmere, Cumbria. 16 March 2015 - 1 November 2015

To mark the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, the Wordsworth Trust is staging the first-ever exhibition to present William Wordsworth and other writers of the Romantic period as ‘war poets’. Wordsworth, War & Waterloo will display important manuscripts of William Wordsworth’s war poetry alongside stunning pictures and fascinating physical objects from the combat between Britain and France, including a cannon from Nelson’s flagship, cannonballs from the battle of Salamanca and a gruesome collection of teeth from the battlefield of Waterloo itself. 

The show will reveal how important the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were for Wordsworth as a writer. It will tell the story of the poet’s changing responses to the global conflict that began in 1793 and culminated with Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in June 1815. In doing so, the exhibition will illustrate how the dramatic events of the war impinged on the lives of people across Britain, including women and children. 

With a particular focus on artistic and literary responses to the conflict, Wordsworth, War & Waterloo will demonstrate how war shaped Wordsworth’s ideas about his own role as a poet. It will display how he and other writers came to define themselves in relation to the major military and naval figures of the period – Admiral Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, and, in particular, Napoleon Bonaparte.

This unique exhibition draws on the expertise of its two curators, Jeff Cowton of the Wordsworth Trust, and Professor Simon Bainbridge of Lancaster University, a leading authority on the subject of literature and war in the Romantic period and the author of the books Napoleon and English Romanticism and British Poetry and the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.  

The exhibition will be richly illustrated with a number of important paintings, drawings and cartoons from the period. It will bring together Benjamin Robert Haydon’s portraits of Wordsworth, Wellington and Napoleon, will feature a range of satirical cartoons on the war and its leading personalities by the brilliant caricaturist James Gillray, and will display J. M.W. Turner’s sketchbook from his visit to Waterloo.  

Activities for families and children will be integral to the exhibition, which will offer a number of interactive displays, and there will be a programme of events associated with the show.

For further information on the book Wordsworth, War & Waterloo, please see our online shop: https://www.wordsworth.org.uk/shop.html

The Wordsworth Trust
Dove Cottage
Grasmere 
LA22 9SH

Tel: 015394 35544
Web: www.wordsworth.org.uk 


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