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(2013) Reading historical fiction, Dordrecht, Springer.
The living past and the fellowship of sacrificial violence in William Morris's a dream of John Ball
Ingrid Hanson
pp. 204-219
An 1888 review of William Morris's historical tale, A Dream of John Ball, suggests that after reading it "one has a heart-deep sense of satisfaction at knowing that at last, after centuries of neglect and scorn and derision, something like justice has been done to the loyal priest and martyr in the people's cause'. The review, which appeared in the socialist journal To-day, goes on to claim that "this reverent memorialising of the true heroes is surely an earnest of the near triumph of the true cause' (185). In this chapter I argue that while Morris's fictionalisation of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt certainly works to elide the space between the battles of the past and the struggle of the nineteenth-century working class, his representation of the efficacy and beauty of sacrificial violence nonetheless has the effect of removing "the true cause' from the realms of the real into the ideal. John Ball, first published serially in the Socialist League journal, Commonweal, between November 1886 and January 1887, serves less as "reverent memorialising' and more as an invitation to an active, transformative reading of past battles.' Yet its very intensity of realisation and the completeness of its vision risks leaving its readers with "heart-deep […] satisfaction' rather than an urgent desire for action.
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Full citation:
Hanson, I. (2013)., The living past and the fellowship of sacrificial violence in William Morris's a dream of John Ball, in K. Mitchell & N. Parsons (eds.), Reading historical fiction, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 204-219.
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