[A] striking effort to trace the influence of Tractarianism on Victorian literature in a new way, extending out of theology into the social and political sphere.

Modern Language Review

This book is both brilliant and urgent. Broadly and incisively probing the aesthetic and social practices of Tractarian reserve, Lesa Scholl revises our understanding of Victorian poetry and Victorian religion while also speaking to social injustice in our own time.

Linda K. Hughes, Addie Levy Professor of Literature, TCU

This bold new study of the influence of the Tractarian doctrine of Reserve on Victorian poetry and poetics radically reframes our thinking about Anglo-Catholic engagement with nineteenth-century social issues. Tractarianism, often characterised as more interested in matters of theology, liturgy and ritual than social justice and activism, is revealingly explored instead in light of its concern with poverty and hunger. In this lively and revisionist account, the poets whose formative years were shaped by the Oxford Movement are re-presented as agents of a social mission as crucial to their religious and social identity as that of their Evangelical peers.

Professor Hilary Fraser, Geoffrey Tillotson Chair of Nineteenth-Century Studies, Birkbeck, University of London

It is in its breadth that this book also shines brightest, reminding us that the Tractarian influence extended beyond church walls to touch the more immanent spheres of social activism and everyday care.

Victorian Studies