Few stories capture the unique interplay of critical theory, mass media and public taste better than the story of the Spasmodics. These earnest, youthful and largely self-educated neo-Romantics hoped to become prophets who would influence literary society on a grand scale. From about 1850 to 1860, the Spasmodics successfully cast a long shadow over virtually every serious discussion of Victorian poetry. Many mid-nineteenth-century writers, including Tennyson, both Brownings and Matthew Arnold, were either adherents or outspoken detractors of the Spasmodic School.

This work is an attempt to document, in the appropriate social context, the trajectory of the Spasmodic School in both its original incarnation and in subsequent appraisals. Examining the various personalities and aesthetic principles that fashioned the movement, it does not champion any particular critical stance or verdict. The scholarly apparatus contained within cites a number of competing Victorianist interpretations, approaches and judgments with varying degrees of expertise.