What was the writing style of Walter Pater?


Walter Pater or Walter Horatio Pater was born August 4, 1839, in Shadwell, London and he died on July 30, 1894, at Oxford in Oxfordshire. He was a famous English critic, journalist, writer of fiction, university teacher, and an essayist.

Writing Style of Walter Pater

  • Aestheticism: Walter Pater is the man behind ‘Art for Art’s sake’, which even Oscar Wilde advocated of, the glimpse of which can be found in their writings. He evaluates art and his writing is thus related to art on the basis of their moral and educational value.

  • Versatile Writer: He exhibited in his work breadth of talents and interests. His most renowned work falls into cultural theory; art history including painting, sculpture, and architecture. He wrote on the critics of the old and modern English Literature too. He even wrote lecture articles, short stories etc. William E. Buckler says that Pater “is still one of the half-dozen indispensable critics in English; from, say, 1880 to 1920, he was without equal.”

  • Freshness In His Works: A. C. Benson called Pater's style "absolutely distinctive and entirely new", suggesting that there was some peculiar newness in his works.

  • Depth In Work: Pater’s work is not subtle and superficial. There is a certain depth and richness in his work.

  • Philosophical: Pater was not talking about things in the air. He enumerated aspects which could even be philosophical in nature.

  • Influential: The writing style of Pater is so masterly, that critics have even found its influence on Virginia Woolf, James Joyce etc.

Though Walter Pater is no more with us, he has still become immortal because of his writings.

Updated on: 30-Jul-2019

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