Article published In: English Text Construction
Vol. 9:2 (2016) ► pp.221–243
“The flaming ramparts of the world”
The function of Lucretius in Walter Pater’s Marius the Epicurean
Published online: 24 November 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.9.2.01hac
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.9.2.01hac
The present article analyses Walter Pater’s novel Marius the Epicurean (1885), focusing particularly on the nexus between the story’s setting in Ancient Rome and its treatment of religion. Even though the abrupt ending of Marius’s Bildung suggests that Pater had not yet succeeded in reconciling his aesthetic philosophy with a religious life in community, the novel encourages its readers to adopt an eclectic religious consciousness. By examining Pater’s references to Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura, the article investigates how Pater used the Roman poet to reinforce this message, and to react against the materialism of post-Darwinian Britain. Moreover, it shows how Marius the Epicurean incorporates and subverts some of the motifs that can be found in popular Victorian novels set in Rome.
Keywords: Lucretius, religion, reception of Antiquity, Marius the Epicurean, Walter Pater
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