''A Philosophical View of Reform'' is a major prose work by

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achi ...

written in 1819-20 and first published in 1920 by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

. The political essay is Shelley's longest prose work.

Analysis

Shelley composed ''A Philosophical View of Reform'' between November, 1819 and 20 May 1820, meant to address political developments in England at that time. He advocated non-violence and a moderate response to the repressive measures imposed by the British government. One of the events he addressed was the

Peterloo Massacre The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliament ...

, which occurred on 16 August 1819, in St. Peter's Field near Manchester, where a peaceful demonstration seeking parliamentary reform was attacked by militia. The bookseller

Richard Carlile Richard Carlile (8 December 1790 – 10 February 1843) was an important agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom. Early life Born in Ashburton, Devon, he was the son of a shoemaker w ...

had been found guilty of blasphemy by a jury in November, 1819 for printing an edition of ''

The Age of Reason ''The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology'' is a work by English and American political activist Thomas Paine, arguing for the philosophical position of deism. It follows in the tradition of 18th-century Briti ...

'' (1794-6) by

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

. The “Six Acts” had been promulgated in December which placed restrictions on public gatherings and freedom of the press. It was during this unstable political period in England in late 1819 when Shelley started writing ''A Philosophical View of Reform''. Shelley told John and

Maria Gisborne Maria Gisborne (''née'' James, previously Reveley; 1770–1836) was a friend and correspondent of Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Godwin. Early life Maria James, the daughter of an English merchant at Constantinople, was born in 1770, ...

on 6 November: "I have deserted the odorous gardens of literature to journey across the great sandy desert of Politics." Shelley proposed five reforms:Ripley, Brian. "Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'A Philosophical View of Reform'": www.shelley.235.ca/ #abolish the national debt. #disband the standing army. #abolish sinecures. #abolish tithes, and make all religions, all forms of opinion regarding the origin and government of the universe, equal under the law. #make justice inexpensive, certain, and speedy, and extend the institution of juries to every possible occasion of jurisprudence. Shelley opposed revolution, advocating instead gradual change through non-violence. He argued that individual and institutional reform went hand in hand. He maintained that poets, writers, and philosophers would stimulate reforms of the social institutions that would benefit everyone in society. Shelley informed his publisher

Charles Ollier Charles Ollier (1788–1859) was an English publisher and author, associated with the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. Early life From a Huguenot background, Ollier began life in the banking-house of Messrs. Coutts. About 1816 he was ...

on 19 December 1819 that he sought ''A Philosophical View of Reform'' "to be an instructive and readable book, appealing from the passions to the reason of men", informing him that he would not finish it "this season". On 26 May 1820 he asked

Leigh Hunt James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet. Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centre ...

if he could find a publisher for the work: "Do you know any bookseller who wd publish for me an octavo volume entitled 'A philosophical View of Reform'. It is boldly but temperately written – & I think readable – It is intended for a kind of standard book for the philosophical reformers."

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...

had a transcript made of the manuscript with plans to publish the work. The political essay remained unpublished, however, until 1920 when it appeared for the first time in print in an edition published by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, with an introduction and appendix by Thomas William Rolleston.

References

Sources

*Sandy, Mark. "A Philosophical View of Reform". ''The Literary Encyclopedia''. First published 21 March 200
accessed 20 July 2011.
*Ripley, Brian. "Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'A Philosophical View of Reform'": www.shelley.235.ca/ *Shelley's Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family: http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/a-philosophical-view-of-reform#Description *"A Philosophical View of Reform." ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 20 July 2011. . *Walker, A. Stanley. "Peterloo, Shelley and Reform." ''PMLA'', Vol. 40, No. 1 (March, 1925), pp. 128–164. *Cameron, Kenneth Neill. "The Social Philosophy of Shelley." ''The Sewanee Review'', Vol. 50, No. 4 (October–December, 1942), pp. 457–466. *Pulos, C.E. "Shelley and Malthus". ''PMLA'', Vol. 67, No. 2 (Mar., 1952), pp. 113–124. *Franta, Andrew. "Shelley and the Poetics of Political Indirection". ''Poetics Today'', 2001, 22, 4, pp. 765–793. *Abana, Yuxuf Akwo. ''The Shelleys and empire: 'Prometheus Unbound', 'Frankenstein', 'A Philosophical View of Reform', and the modern African fictions of liberation''. PhD. dissertation, University of Arizona, 2006: https://www.scribd.com/doc/22141988/The-Shelleys-and-empire-Prometheus-Unbound-Frankenstein-A-Philosophical-View-of-Reform-and-the-modern-African-fictions-of-liberation-Percy *Foot, Paul, ed. ''Shelley's Revolutionary Year: Shelley's Political Poems and the Essay "A Philosophical View of Reform"''. With an Introduction by Paul Foot. Redwords, 1990. *Shelley, Percy Bysshe. ''A Philosophical View of Reform''. University Press of the Pacific, 2004.

External links

Online version of the 1920 Oxford edition of ''A Philosophical View of Reform'' by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Philosophical View of Reform Works by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1820 essays Political philosophy literature Modern philosophical literature 1920 books