Tennyson originally gave the title of

to the volume he published in August 1864 as

By this time he was famous:

(1850) had brought him critical and popular acclaim and the laureateship;

(1855), though more equivocally received, had also sold well, and the first four books of what would become

were resoundingly successful when they were published in 1859. But the success of

was phenomenal: seventeen thousand copies were sold on the day of publication and sixty thousand by the end of the year. There were some objections to the subject matter and the style of some of the poems but overall it captured the mood of the age.

Tennyson’s first title, Idylls of the Hearth, expressed an intention of portraying

2500 words

Citation: Shaw, Marion. "Enoch Arden Etc". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 October 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5354, accessed 26 November 2024.]