Wordsworth and Evolution in Victorian Literature

Trenton B. Olsen completed his PhD in English Literature at the University of Minnesota and is currently Assistant Professor of English at Brigham Young University–Idaho. His work has appeared in Victorian Literature and Culture, The George Eliot Review, and The Journal of Stevenson Studies. He received the 2017 Idaho Humanities Council Research Fellowship and the 2018 George Eliot Essay Prize.

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"Olsen's book is a careful and productive contribution to intellectual history. Conscientiously and energetically researched, it demonstrates the value of crossing period boundaries in literary criticism. . . . Olsen shows convincingly how our sense of Wordsworth's historic importance is shaped by the interaction of his thought with evolutionary science, and also how that interaction illuminates the work of Victorian writers seeking to clarify their understanding of the natural world in light of what they were learning of its evolutionary history."—Robert M. Ryan, Review 19 "Olsen’s work is a real joy to read. This is partly because his style encourages the reader to engage in a dialogue through his easy-going and accessible ways of presenting an argument. It is also so partly because the rather complex idea of ‘entangled influence’ is elegantly explained in a thoroughly convincing way supported by clear and well-referenced evidence."—Faysal Mikdadi, The Thomas Hardy Journal"Readers of this journal may remember Trenton B. Olsen winning last year’s George Eliot Fellowship Essay Prize with his fine piece ‘Wordsworth, Darwin, and the Growth of the Mind in George Eliot’s Late Fiction.’ His book is equally fine, closely argued, thought-provoking and highly recommended." —Antonie G. van den Broek, The George Eliot Review