A study of the writer Matthew Arnold (1822-88), aiming to portray him as an attractive and relevant figure for the modern reader and looking at him particularly as a social and literary critic of the 1860s, notably through his works "Essays in Criticism" and "Culture and Anarchy".

This is a study of the writer Matthew Arnold (1822-88), in which the author aims to portray him as an attractive and relevant figure for the modern reader. He argues that it is a literary and social critic that Arnold chiefly commands attention today and to this end he concentrates on his prose writing of the 1860s and above all "Essays in Criticism" and "Culture and Anarchy", rather than his religious writings or poetry. Instead of providing a summary of all Arnold's views, Collini has aimed to present the tone and temper of his mind and the distinctive style in which it expressed itself. Extensive quotations have been used to bring this out. Collini is co-author of "That Noble Science of Politics".