Heart Beats: Everyday Life and the Memorized Poem
Winner of the 2013 NAVSA Best Book of the Year Award, North American Victorian Studies Association"Catherine Robson's extraordinary book, a feat of imagining as well as of scholarship, explores the memorization and reciting of poems in classrooms across England and America through substantial portions of the last two centuries."--William H. Pritchard,Weekly Standard"I hope that books like Catherine Robson's brilliant Heart Beats: Everyday Life and the Memorized Poemwill mark a turning point in the history of our discipline. Written with a lightness of touch but a depth of commitment . . . lively, fresh and insightful . . . thoughtful and meticulous."--Chris Jones,Times Higher Education"Robson develops her arguments with a delicious range of references."--Julie Blake,English in Education"Robson does far more than give us the institutional history of verse memorization, though she does this fascinatingly well. She interrogates what performed memorization means for the study of poetry, reception, and canonization."--James Najarian,European Romantic Review"Heart Beatsinvites further research, and should have a significant impact on Victorian studies for some time to come."--Kirstie Blair,Tennyson Research Bulletin