A History of Romantic Literature
Blackwell History of Literature
1. Edition August 2019
544 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Historical Narrative Offers Introduction to Romanticism by Placing Key Figures in Overall Social Context
Going beyond the general literary survey, A History of Romantic Literature examines the literatures of sensibility and intensity as well as the aesthetic dimensions of horror and terror, sublimity and ecstasy, by providing a richly integrated account of shared themes, interests, innovations, rivalries and disputes among the writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Drawing from the assemblage theory, Prof. Burwick maintains that the literature of the period is inseparable from prevailing economic conditions and ongoing political and religious turmoil, as well as developments in physics, astronomy, music and art. Thus, rather than deal with authors as if they worked in isolation from society, he identifies and describes their interactions with their communities and with one another, as well as their responses to current events. By connecting seemingly scattered and random events such as the bank crisis of 1825, he weaves the coincidental into a coherent narrative of the networking that informed the rise and progress of Romanticism. Notable features of the book include:
* A strong narrative structure divided into four major chronological periods: Revolution, 1789-1798; Napoleonic Wars, 1799-1815; Riots, 1815-1820; Reform, 1821-1832
* Thorough coverage of major and minor figures and institutions of the Romantic movement (including Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Montague and the Bluestockings, Lord Byron, John Keats, Letitia Elizabeth Landon etc.)
* Emphasis on the influence of social networks among authors, such as informal dinners and teas, clubs, salons and more formal institutions
With its extensive coverage and insightful analysis set within a lively historical narrative, History of Romantic Literature is highly recommended for courses on British Romanticism at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. It will also prove a highly useful reference for advanced scholars pursuing their own research.
I. Revolution, 1789-1798
The 'Revolution Controversy'
Newington Green Circle
Mary Wollstonecraft
Anna Laedtitia Barbauld
Abolition Movement
Thomas Beddoes, Pneumatic Institute
Slave Trade, Opium Trade
Elizabeth Montagu and the Bluestockings
Helen Maria Williams
William Blake
Anna Seward
Dissenters
Historical Nodes
Corresponding Societies and Treason Trials
Erasmus Darwin
Charles Lloyd
John Thelwall
John Horne Tooke
Nonconformists
William Blake: Vision and Prophecy
George Crabbe
Thomas Holcroft
Gothic, Domestic Violence, Sadism
The Irish Rebellion
Coleridge at Cambridge
William Frend
John Tweddell and James Losh
Freedom of the Press
Letters of Junius
George Dyer
Mary Hays
Elizabeth Hamilton
Mary Robinson
Coleridge and Wordsworth
Joanna Baillie
Maria Edgeworth
Charlotte Smith
II. Napoleonic Wars, 1799-1815
The French Consulate and Great Britain
Coalitions
Toussaint-L'Ouverture
Peace of Amiens
'Dejection' Dialogue
The Growth of The Prelude
Back to Nature
Coleridge's Conversation Poems
Continental Romanticism
Jane Porter
Thomas Bewick
Moral Causality
1805: Connections and Coincidences
The Periodical Press
Exaltation and Exploitation of the Child
The Lecture
Lord Byron: 'Fools are my theme, let satire be my song.'
The Novel
Interconnections: Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Joanna Baillie,
George Crabbe, Anna Laetitia Barbauld
III. Riots, 1815-1820
Waterloo
Corn Laws: Cobbett, Bamford, Wroe, Eliot
Lord Byron: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Cantos III and IV
Lord Byron: Manfred
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Samuel Rogers
Coleridge: Principles of Genial Criticism and Biographia Literaria
Coleridge: Kubla Khan and Christabel
Keats: Networking
Keats: Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion
Keats: Eve of St Agnes and Lamia
Keats: The Great Odes
Belatedness
Wordsworth, Shelley, Reynolds: Peter Bell I, II, III, and IV
Wordsworth: Benjamin the Waggoner
Scottish Insurrection of 1820
Cato Street Conspiracy
Leigh Hunt
March of the Blanketeers
Satire and the Gagging Acts
Shelley: Mask of Anarchy
Beau Brummell
Blake: Jerusalem
Shelley: Prometheus Unbound
IV. Reform, 1821-1832
Trial of Queen Caroline
Shelley: Swellfoot
Shelley: Witch of Atlas
Byron: Don Juan
Clare: Village Minstrel
De Quincey: Confessions
Maria Edgeworth: Tomorrow
Charles Lamb: Essayist, Critic, Playwright
Hazlitt: Spirit of the Age
Deaths: Napoleon, Keats, Shelley, Castlereagh, Radcliffe, Byron.
Mary Russell Mitford: Foscari
Walter Savage Landor: Imaginary Conversations
Letitia Elizabeth Landon: Improvisatrice
Samuel Rogers: Italy
George Dyer
Mary Russell Mitford: Foscari
Walter Savage Landor: Imaginary Conversations
Panic of 1825
Felicia Hemans
Thomas Love Peacock: Misfortunes of Elphin
Thomas Lovell Beddoes: Death's Jest Book
Parliamentary Reform
Abolition
Deaths: Blake, Hazlitt, Scott, Goethe, Coleridge, Crabbe, Lamb, Thelwall
Conclusion
Index
