Malvern Chase - Hardcover

Symonds, W.S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 095021597X ISBN 13: 9780950215976

Publisher: Whittington Press, 1974

Synopsis

William Samuel Symonds (1818-1887), also known as W. S. S., was an English geologist. He was appointed curate of Offenham, near Evesham in 1843, and two years later he was presented to the living of Pendock in Worcestershire, where he remained until 1877. While at Offenham he became acquainted with HE Strickland and from him developed an interest in natural history and geology that consumed him from that point. He was one of the founders of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club (1851) and of the Malvern Naturalists' Field Club (1853), and was an active member of the Cotteswold Field Club and other local societies. In 1858 he edited an edition of Hugh Miller's Cruise of the "Betsey". His principal work was Records of the Rocks (1872). He was author of Stones of the Valley (1857), Old Bones; or, Notes for Young Naturalists (1859), and other popular works including historical romances such as Malvern Chase (1881) and Hanley Castle (1883).

About this title

From the Back Cover

Malvern Chase was first published in 1880 and its popularity was such that six editions were printed within ten years. Although William Symonds subtitled it as an `autobiographical' account of the Wars of the Roses, it is in reality a superb historical reconstruction supported by much documentary evidence. The medieval romance not only satisfied the Victorian liking for all things gothic, whether in architecture, furniture, or painting, but, as a story of masculine derring-do, feminine fidelity, and ghostly portent, it also followed the literary fashion of the time. The author's descriptions of the Malvern Hills and the Vale of the Severn, at a time when they consisted of forest, heath, and marsh, paint an appealing picture that provokes a yearning for those less crowded times, even if life was much more uncertain. The populist support for the Witchfinder to sniff out those experimenting with herbal remedies has a resonance with a latter-day suspicion of scientific research. The book has been out of print for many years and this new edition revives for a twenty-first century reader its effective characterisation, breadth of scholarship, and lively narrative.

Edition details

• Publisher: Whittington Press
• Publication date: 1974
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 095021597X
• ISBN 13: 9780950215976
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360