LibGuides: Romantic British Literature: Books & eBooks

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Aspects of Byron's Don Juan Aspects of Byron's Don Juan is, in part, a proceedings volume from the 2012 conference held by the Newstead Byron Society at Nottingham Trent University. Speakers represented in the book include Malcolm Kelsall, Peter Cochran, Diego Saglia and Itsuyo Higashinaka. Topics range from the politics of Don Juan, and its treatment of women, to its comic rhymes. One section is devoted to the poem's importance in the literatures of Spain and Russia, another to the vast catalogue of Byron's prose sources (from cannibalism to cookery books), and a final section to the important role played by Mary Shelley in copying most of the poem for the printer.The editor's introduction describes the enormous literary tradition of which Don Juan forms a vital continuation, from Pulci's Morgante Maggiore, via Rabelais, Cervantes, and Montaigne, to the novelists Sterne, Smollett and Fielding, all of whom Byron adored. Another chapter concerns the differing ways in which Don Juan has been treated by other artists, from Tirso de Molina, via E. T. A. Hoffman, to Johnny Depp.
Burke to Byron, Barbauld to Baillie, 1790-1830 Definitions of the Romantic period have undergone considerable change in the last few years. Beyond the careers of the 'Big Six' (Blake, Wordsworth, Byron, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats), critics have begun to recognise a much fuller range of writers flourishing in the second half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth. Who were these other writers whose popularity threatened the fame of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron? What happens to our understanding of canonical authors when we place them in the context of the print culture of their own time? This book is an accessible and stimulating account of the recent vital changes in critical perceptions of Romanticism. It will enable students and teachers to navigate the new diversities and complexities of Romantic studies, providing a fresh, readable reassessment of a controversial and exciting period.
The Cambridge Introduction to William Wordsworth William Wordsworth is the most influential of the Romantic poets, and remains widely popular, even though his work is more complex and more engaged with the political, social and religious upheavals of his time than his reputation as a 'nature poet' might suggest. Outlining a series of contexts - biographical, historical and literary - as well as critical approaches to Wordsworth, this Introduction offers students ways to understand and enjoy Wordsworth's poetry and his role in the development of Romanticism in Britain. Emma Mason offers a completely up-to-date summary of criticism on Wordsworth from the Romantics to the present and an annotated guide to further reading. With definitions of technical terms and close readings of individual poems, Wordsworth's experiments with form are fully explained. This concise book is the ideal starting point for studying Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude, and the major poems as well as Wordsworth's lesser known writings.
A Companion to Jane Austen Reflecting the dynamic and expansive nature of Austen studies, A Companion to Jane Austen provides 42 essays from a distinguished team of literary scholars that examine the full breadth of the English novelist's works and career. Provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date array of Austen scholarship Functions both as a scholarly reference and as a survey of the most innovative speculative developments in the field of Austen studies Engages at length with changing contexts and cultures of reception from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries
Critical Companion to Jane Austen : A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work Jane Austen has been one of the world's most popular writers for 200 years and is best known for her works ""Pride and Prejudice"", ""Emma"", and ""Sense and Sensibility"". Taught in high school and college classes across the country and appealing to both scholars and general readers, her novels, many of which have been adapted into popular films, continue to be best sellers today.""Critical Companion to Jane Austen"" examines her life and works, and includes critical analyses of the themes within her writing, as well as entries on related topics and relevant people, places, and influences.
Critical Insights: Jane Austen
English Literature from the Restoration Through the Romantic Period Both the form and content of literature today owes much to the developments that took place in England between the Restoration and Romantic periods. The emergence of the novel triggered the creation of new genres and accompanied a rise in literacy throughout the country. As new dimensions were added to both poetry and prose, writers explored new styles and voices to articulate a fuller emotional range. This volume examines the English writers who helped shape the social, political, and religious climate of the age, and immerses students in the history of narratives that continue to enchant audiences today.
English Romantic Poetry From Blake to Coleridge, and Wordsworth to Shelley, this volume provides a critical overview on the poets who defined the English Romantic period. Specific topics such as the forms and characteristics of English Romantic poetry are addressed.
Fearful Symmetry : A Study of William Blake This brilliant outline of Blake's thought and commentary on his poetry comes on the crest of the current interest in Blake, and carries us further towards an understanding of his work than any previous study. Here is a dear and complete solution to the riddles of the longer poems, the so-called "Prophecies," and a demonstration of Blake's insight that will amaze the modern reader. The first section of the book shows how Blake arrived at a theory of knowledge that was also, for him, a theory of religion, of human life and of art, and how this rigorously defined system of ideas found expression in the complicated but consistent symbolism of his poetry. The second and third parts, after indicating the relation of Blake to English literature and the intellectual atmosphere of his own time, explain the meaning of Blake's poems and the significance of their characters.
The Life of Walter Scott John Sutherland's new critical biography is an undertaking of major importance in which he penetrates into the darker areas of Scott's life in a sceptical (yet sympathetic) spirit,
Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley Pioneers in life writing, Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), and Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein (1818 ), are now widely regarded as two of the leading writers of the Romantic period. They are both responsible for opening up new possibilities for women in genres traditionally dominated by men. This volume brings together essays on Wollstonecraft's and Shelley's life writing by some of the most prominent scholars in Canada, Australia, and the United States. It also includes a full-length play by award-winning Canadian playwright Rose Scollard. Together, the essays and the play explore the connections between mother and daughter, between writing and life, and between criticism and creation. They offer a new understanding of two important writers, of a literary period, and of emergent modes of life writing. Essayists include Judith Barbour, Betty T. Bennett, Anne K. Mellor, Charles E. Robinson, Eleanor Ty, and Lisa Vargo. Among the works discussed are Wollstonecraft's Vindication, Letters from Norway, and Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman; William Godwin's Memoirs of Wollstonecraft; and Shelley's Frankenstein, The Last Man, Ladore, and Rambles in Germany and Italy.
Poems and Songs by Robert Burns Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) called himself "an Aeolian harp strung to every wind of heaven." His first volume of poems, entitled Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, was published in 1786. An immediate success, it established Burns's poetic reputation, which has grown over two centuries to the point where he is not only the Scottish national poet but the object of a cult unique in British poetry. The present volume contains 43 of his finest poems and songs, reprinted unabridged from an authoritative tenth-century edition. Included are "The Twa Dogs," a deft satire of the Scottish upper classes; "To a Mouse," one of the poet's best known, most charming works; "Address to the Unco Guid," an attack on Puritan hypocrisy; "Holy Willie's Prayer," one of the great verse-satires of all times; as well as such favorites as "The Cotter's Saturday Night," "To a Mountain Daisy," "The Holy Fair," "Address to the Deil," "The Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie," and many more. In addition to his poetic undertakings, Burns almost single-handedly preserved and revived the traditional Scottish song, and this volume includes a rich selection of these works: "A Red, Red Rose," "Auld Lang Syne," "Comin' thro' the Rye," "My Heart's in the Highlands," "My Love, She's But a Lassie Yet," and a host of others.
Romanticism Romanticism was a revolutionary intellectual and artistic movement which generated some of the most popular and influential texts in British and American literary history. This clear and engaging guide introduces the history, major writers and critical issues of this crucial era. This fully updated second edition includes: Discussion of a broad range of writers including William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, John Keats, Ralph Waldo Emerson, H.D. Thoreau, Frederick Douglas A new chapter on American Romanticism Discussion of the romantic sublime or romantic imagination An engagement with critical debates such as postcolonialism, gender studies and ecocriticism.
Romanticism, Lyricism, and History Argues against the persistent view of Romantic lyricism as inherently introspective by relating the poems of William Wordsworth, John Clare, and Charlotte Smith, as well as the letters and prose works of Dorothy Wordsworth, to their historical and literary contexts.
Romanticism and Revolution Romanticism and Revolution: A Readerpresents an anthology ofthe key texts that both defined the debate over the FrenchRevolution during the 1790s and influenced the Romantic authors. Presents readings chronologically to allow readers toexperience the unfolding of the debate as it occurred in the1790s Provides an accessible and in-depth sampling of the majorcontributors to the Revolution debate, from Price, Burke, and Paineto Wollstonecraft and Godwin 
Romanticism and the Human Sciences : Poetry, Population, and the Discourse of the Species This innovative study examines the dialogue between British Romantic poetry and the human sciences of the period. Maureen McLane reveals how Romantic writers participated in a new-found consciousness of human beings as a species, engaging with major discourses on moral philosophy, political economy and anthropology by preeminent theorists such as Malthus, Godwin and Burke. The book provides original readings of canonical works, including Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Percy Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, and has much to say about the place of Romantic poetry within its culture.

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Backgrounds to English Literature: The Romantics Romanticism emphasized feelings, imagination, idealism, and nature over rationalism, logic, and urban life. This volume investigates the origins of romanticism, the age of revolution, and the economic, social, and artistic developments as reflected in the work of Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, and others.
Blake's Poetry and Designs A collection of poems, prose, notebooks, marginalia, and letters by William Blake, accompanied by critical commentaries of selected works.
The Cambridge Companion to William Blake Poet, painter, and engraver William Blake died in 1827 in obscure poverty with few admirers. The attention paid today to his remarkable poems, prints, and paintings would have astonished his contemporaries. Admired for his defiant, uncompromising creativity, he has become one of the most anthologized and studied writers in English and one of the most studied and collected British artists. His urge to cast words and images into masterpieces of revelation has left us with complex, forceful, extravagant, some times bizarre works of written and visual art that rank among the greatest challenges to plain understanding ever created.
The Hidden Wordsworth: Poet, Lover, Rebel, Spy Based on new research in government archives in Britain and France, school and university records and intimate letters, this book is a revealing account of a young poet who lived a life even Byron would have envied. In the narrative, the poet William Wordsworth emerges as a man of action during his youth and early manhood, the time of his life that has been obscured by his more august reputation as a philosophical Nature Poet. The text aims to break through the carefully crafted but frequently misleading accounts of his youth that he created in his later years. It explores Wordsworth's links with radical British reformists, French revolutionary leaders and journalists, and reveals Wordsworth as an agent of the newly formed British secret service on the Continent and at home.
John Keats Romantic poet, John Keats was only 25 when he died of tuberculosis, but his work has achieved canonical status. Poet and critic Matthew Arnold said of Keats, In the faculty of naturalistic interpretation, in what we call natural magic, he ranks with Shakespeare. Keats' more recognizable poems include Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to a Nightingale, and Ode on Melancholy.
The Making of the Poets: Byron and Shelley in Their Time Leaving no stone unturned in this illuminating portrait of Byron and Shelley’s formative years, Ian Gilmour’s entertaining dual biography explores the early lives of these two rebellious poets as they pursued freedom from traditional authority—in poetry, in politics, and in love. Born at a time of political and intellectual upheaval, the two well-born heretics were at ideological odds with the establishment even as boys.
Marriage, Writing, and Romanticism : Wordsworth and Austen After War Marriage, Writing, and Romanticism studies marriage in two sets of literary texts from the Regency decade: the novels of Jane Austen--who avoided marriage in her own life but seems to have written about nothing else--and a set of non-canonical and generally unfamiliar poems by William Wordsworth, who seems never to turn to the subject of his own marriage.With other Romantic writers who also figure in this study, Austen and Wordsworth confronted the impossibility of writing about anything other than marriage and the imperative either to celebrate or condemn it. Thanks to the latest scholarly editions of Wordsworth, Walker introduces previously undiscussed material.Walker reads conjugality as the compulsory ground of modern identity, an Enlightenment legacy we still grapple with today, and offers new perspectives on literature through the writing of Austen and Wordsworth and theories of marriage in Godwin, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and, in our time, Adam Phillips and Stanley Cavell.
Poetry and Politics in the Cockney School: Keats, Shelley, Hunt, and their circle Jeffrey N. Cox refines our conception of 'second generation' Romanticism by placing it within the circle of writers around Leigh Hunt that came to be known as the 'Cockney School'. Offering a theory of the group as a key site for cultural production, Cox challenges the traditional image of the Romantic poet as an isolated figure by recreating the social nature of the work of Shelley, Keats, Hunt, Hazlitt, Byron, and others, as they engaged in literary contests, wrote poems celebrating one another, and worked collaboratively on journals and other projects. Cox also recovers the work of neglected writers such as John Hamilton Reynolds, Horace Smith, and Cornelius Webb as part of the rich social and cultural context of Hunt's circle. This 1999 book not only demonstrates convincingly that a 'Cockney School' existed, but shows that it was committed to putting literature in the service of social, cultural, and political reform.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Coleridge's poetry often overshadows the brilliance of the other genres and forms of writing that occupied his interests. Classic works such as Kubla Khan have taken their place among the most accomplished poems written in the English language. This title offers a selection of contemporary critical commentary on the author.
William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

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Defining Documents in World History: The 19th Century (1801–1900) The 19th century was an era of rapidly accelerating scientific discovery and invention that laid the groundwork for the technological advances of the 20th century as well as important social and political reforms. This 2-volume set offers in-depth analysis of a broad range of historical documents, including legal codes, letters, speeches, constitutions, reports, and books that impacted the world throughout the nineteenth century, from the Napoleonic Code to Darwin's Descent of Man.
Great Events from History: The Nineteenth Century These four volumes provide coverage on the most important developments from 1801 through 1900, including the struggle to end slavery, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and the expansion of democracy in the Western world.