The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief

From the critically acclaimed author of The Age of Wonder, a rich and fascinating exploration of the Victorian world using young Tennyson to illustrate the tensions at the heart of the era.

As a young scholar at Cambridge, Tennyson wrote “The Kraken,” a sonnet that would later be regarded as one of his first great poems. Inspired by his lonely wanderings along the wild North sea beaches of Lincolnshire, “The Kraken” deftly weaved between considerations of ancient folklore and unprecedented discoveries in marine science, to become both a haunting elegy to a monstrous creature of the ‘Godless deep’ and an exploration of the vast, unknown aspects of nature and the human psyche.

The early nineteenth century, during which Tennyson rose to eminence, was a period characterized by rapid scientific advancement and technological progress. Groundbreaking discoveries in astronomy, biology, and geology expanded humanity’s understanding of the natural world, challenging previously established religious and philosophical viewpoints. This age, called the Victorian era, was underpinned by a growing tension between faith and reason—religion and science—which plunged Western society into a period of great uncertainty.

Tennyson emerged as a widely respected poet amidst this turmoil, his imagination and intellect driven by the eruption of three new fundamentally transformative scientific ideas—biological evolution, the notion of a godless, unpitying universe and of planetary extinction. Compelled by these scientific discoveries, Tennyson grappled with his growing uncertainty and apprehension about the changing world through his work.

Brilliant and revelatory, The Boundless Deep is an utterly absorbing exploration of the life and work of a young Tennyson, whose imperishable legacy urges us to reexamine humanity's relationship with faith, reason, the natural world, and our place within it.

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