Tom Arnold (literary scholar)

Thomas Arnold
Born	(1823-11-30)30 November 1823 Staines,Surrey,England
Died	12 November 1900(1900-11-12)(aged 76) Dublin,Ireland
Occupation	School inspector, teacher, writer, academic
Nationality	British
Period	Victorian
Genre	non-fiction
Subject	History of literature
Spouse	Julia Sorell ​ (m.1826⁠–⁠1888)​ Josephine Maria Benison ​ ​ (m.1890)​
Children	9 (includingMary Augusta,William,JuliaandEthel)
Relatives	Thomas Arnold(father) Matthew Arnold(brother) William Delafield Arnold(brother) Julian Huxley(grandson) Aldous Huxley(grandson)

Family tree

Thomas Arnold(30 November 1823 – 12 November 1900), also known asThomas Arnold the Younger,was an English literary scholar.

Life

He was the second son ofThomas Arnold,headmaster ofRugby School,and his wife Mary Penrose. He was the younger brother of the poetMatthew Arnoldand older brother of author and colonial administratorWilliam Delafield Arnold.After gaining afirst class degreeatUniversity College, Oxford,Arnold grew discontented withVictorianBritain and attempted to take up farming inNew Zealand.Failing to make a success of this career, in 1850 he moved toTasmania,having been invited to take the job of Inspector of Schools by GovernorWilliam Denison.Soon after arriving inHobart,he fell in love with and married Julia Sorell, granddaughter of former GovernorWilliam Sorell.They had nine children (four of whom died young), among them:Ethel,who was a suffragist and child model;Mary,who became a novelist under the name Mrs Humphry Ward; Julia, who marriedLeonard Huxley,the son ofThomas,and gave birth toJulianandAldous;andWilliam Thomasthe journalist.After being widowed in 1888, Arnold married for a second time in 1890, to Josephine Maria Benison, daughter of James Benison,Ballyconnell,County Cavan,Ireland.

While in Tasmania, Arnold converted fromAnglicanismtoRoman Catholicism,a move which angered his Protestant wife sufficiently to cause her to smash the windows of the chapel during his confirmation. The marriage was to be plagued by domestic strife over religious loyalty until Julia's death. At the time, Tasmania would not employ Catholics in senior civil service positions, and so in 1857 the family moved back to England. Arnold took a job teachingEnglish literatureat theCatholic UniversityinDublin,and wroteA Manual of English Literature(1862), which became a standard textbook. He resigned from the university in 1862 to become head of classics atThe Oratory SchoolinBirmingham.He left in 1865, when a letter he had written insisting that he would need a higher salary to continue at the school was interpreted byCardinal Newmanas a tendering of resignation.

Arnold opened a private tutoring establishment in Oxford, and began to attendChurch of Englandservices. He edited a number of important literary works, includingBeowulf.In 1876 he stood for election to the Chair of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. Finding that some supporters were campaigning for him as the "Anglican" candidate, he felt this put him in a false position; on the eve of the election he announced his intention of being reconciled to the Catholic Church. It is unlikely that this had much effect on the election, but family tradition maintained that he had cast away a great opportunity for a scruple. After a period of financial hardship, in which his main occupation was editorial work for theRolls Series,Arnold returned to Dublin in 1882 as professor of English literature atUniversity College,teaching to the end of his life in 1900. One of his last students wasJames Joyce.

Publications

As author

• A Manual of English Literature, Historical and Critical.London: Longman & Co., 1862 (much reprinted to 1897).
• Chaucer to Wordsworth: a Short History of English Literature to the present day.London: Thomas Murby, 1870. 2nd ed. 1875.
• Catholic Higher Education in Ireland.Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1897.
• Notes on Beowulf.London: Longmans, Green, 1898.
• Passages in a Wandering Life.London: Edward Arnold, 1900.

As editor

• Select English Works of John Wycliffe from Original Manuscripts.3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1869–1871.
• Selections from Addison's Papers contributed to the Spectator.Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875.
• Beowulf: a Heroic Poem of the Eighth Century, with a translation.London: Longmans, Green, 1876.
• Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum. The History of the English, by Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, from A.D. 55 to A.D. 1154.Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages ( "Rolls Series" ) 74. London: Longman & Co., 1879.
• English Poetry and Prose: a collection of illustrative passages from the writings of English authors, commencing in the Anglo-Saxon period, and brought down to the present time.2nd edition. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1882.
• Symeonis monachi opera omnia.2 vols. Rolls Series 75. London: Longman & Co., 1882–1885.
• Together with William E. Addis he compiledA Catholic Dictionary.First edition, London: Kegan Paul & Co., 1884. Much reissued.
• "Annales Sancti Edmundi (Harl. 447.)",Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey,Vol. II, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1892, pp.vii–viii&1–25.
• Edward Hyde,The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England.Book VI. Second edition, 1894.
• "Cronica Buriensis. A.D. 1020–1346. (Publ. Libr. Cambridge, Add. MS. 850.)",Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey,Vol. III, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1896, pp.vii–xv&1–73.

References

Bibliography

• Bernard Bergonzi,"Arnold, Thomas (1823–1900)," inOxford Dictionary of National Biography,ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Availableonlineto subscribers. Accessed 31 December 2007.
• Bernard Bergonzi,A Victorian Wanderer The Life of Thomas Arnold the Younger.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.ISBN0-19-925741-8.OUP link.
• P.A. Howell.Thomas Arnold the younger in Van Diemen's Land.Tasmania: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 1964.
• James Bertram,ed.,New Zealand Letters of Thomas Arnold the younger, with further letters from Van Diemen's land and letters of Arthur Hugh Clough, 1847-1851.London and Wellington: University of Auckland, Oxford University Press, 1966.
• Julian Huxley,Memories.London: George Allen and Unwin, 1970.
• Thomas Seccombe(1901)."Arnold, Thomas (1823-1900)".InLee, Sidney(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography(1st supplement).London: Smith, Elder & Co.