The Romantic Period

Published in ten volumes, The Penguin History of Literature is a critical survey of English and American literature. Volume 5, The Romantic Period, is comprised of twelve independent essays authored by distinguished academics. These detailed, thought-provoking essays will appeal primarily to upper level students in history and English literature. David B. Pirie edited this collection as well as contributing the interesting essay on John Keats. Seven chapters address the works of influential literary figures including Jane Austen, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. Scholarly, detailed, semi-biographical essays do assume substantial familiarity with their poetry, prose and letters. However, the persistent reader is rewarded with a greater insight into the interplay of politics and literature during this turbulent period of English history. Five more general chapters are devoted to analyzing political and social change: Events Have Made Us A World of Readers - a thoughtful, detailed examination of the rapid growth and democratization of the reading public 1780-1830. Universal literacy, initially viewed as a harbinger of anarchy, was seen by the mid-nineteenth century as a precondition for political stability. Politics and the Novel 1780-1830 - the novel, in 1780 considered the lowest of literary genre, was revitalized by the realization that fiction could be a powerful tool for influencing public opinion. A difficult chapter - I was unacquainted with the writings of period authors like Robert Bage, Charlotte Smith, Elizabeth Inchbald, Jane West, Maria Edgeworth, Amelia Opie, and Thomas Peacock. Only the section on Sir Walter Scott was familiar ground. Representing the People: Crabbe, Southey, and Hazlitt - popular liberties, popular will, and popular sovereignty were new, problematic concepts. This fascinating essay looks at how three writers very differently approached these new ideas. Poor Relations: Writing in the Working Class 1770-1835 - The reading public was charitable to literary curiosities (an untutored muse, a Suffolk cottager, an orphan poet, a blind poet, a poetic shoemaker, etc.) provided that appropriate poetic forms, topics, and social norms were observed. Working class authors of revolutionary tracts rarely had access to book publishing. Orientalism - a detailed (perhaps, overly so) examination of the influence of oriental culture on English Romantic literature and poetry, particularly as British colonialism expanded into India. Suggestion: The appendix contains a useful Table of Dates (1770-1837), 26-pages in length. I recommend reading (not simply scanning) this intriguing compilation of historical events before studying the essays themselves. An extensive bibliography is also provided.