This book contain collection of 4 books
1. Alfred Tennyson, by Andrew Lang
2. The Lady of Shalott
3. Lady Clare
4. Idylls of the King
About the Author
Alfred Tennyson, 1809–1892
Poet, was the fourth son of George Tennyson, Rector of Somersby, Lincolnshire, where he was born His father was himself a poet of some skill, and his two elder brothers, Frederick Tennyson (q.v.) and Charles Tennyson Turner (q.v.), were poets of a high order. His early education was received from his father, after which he went to the Grammar School of Louth, whence in 1828 he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge In the previous year had appeared a small vol., Poems by Two Brothers, chiefly the work of his brother Charles and himself, with a few contributions from Frederick, but it attracted little attention. At the University he was one of a group of highly gifted men, including Trench, Monckton Milnes, afterwards Lord Houghton, Alford, Lushington, his future brother-inlaw, and above all, Arthur Hallam, whose friendship and early death were to be the inspiration of his greatest poem. In 1829 he won the Chancellor’s medal by a poem on Timbuctoo, and in the following year he brought out his first independent work, Poems chiefly Lyrical. It was not in general very favourably received by the critics, though Wilson in Blackwood’s Magazine admitted much promise and even performance. In America it had greater popularity. Part of 1832 was spent in travel with Hallam, and the same year saw the publication of Poems, which had not much greater success than its predecessor. In the next year Hallam died, and Tennyson began In Memoriam and wrote The Two Voices. He also became engaged to Emily Sellwood, his future wife, but owing to various circumstances their marriage did not take place until 1850. The next few years were passed with his family at various places, and, so far as the public were concerned, he remained silent until 1842, when he published Poems in two volumes, and at last achieved full recognition as a great poet.
