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Zusatztext "Goldhill's book is a fascinating contribution to the study of the Victorian reception of the Classics. It provides many new angles on an important area of Reception Studies, and throws new light on more familiar ones." ---Richard Warren, Anzeiger fur Altertumwissenschaft Informationen zum Autor Simon Goldhill is professor of Greek literature and culture and fellow and director of Studies in Classics at King's College, University of Cambridge. His many books include Love, Sex, and Tragedy: How the Ancient World Shapes Our Lives . Klappentext "Goldhill's richly textured, skillfully argued, and improbably erudite journey through France, Germany, and Great Britain in the Victorian period will rightfully place him at the forefront of the burgeoning field of reception studies. Examining the varied, often wildly different influences of Greece and Rome in art, music, and fiction, with a glance at historiography, he situates the study of the classics in the political, social, intellectual, and religious currents of the time, with often surprising results. Whether revisiting opera performances, art exhibitions, or popular cultural icons such as Ben Hur or The Last Days of Pompeii , as well as the uses to which they were put in the hallowed halls of academe and seats of political power, this book is certain to open new ways of understanding how we study and evaluate the manifold meanings of the past." --Froma Zeitlin, Princeton University "The book is wonderfully written with lots of verve and lucidity, and it dives sensitively into a rich pool of archival material with a good deal of erudition." --James I. Porter, University of California, Irvine "In this brilliant and wide-ranging book, Goldhill explores the cultural politics of classical reception from a broadly interdisciplinary perspective. He is a voracious reader with a wonderful eye for detail, moving across various literary genres and media--including music and the visual arts--to illuminate popular discourses and scholarly polemics surrounding classics in the nineteenth century. This is a dynamic engagement with Victorian ideas about classical antiquity, far from antiquarian in its appeal." --Yopie Prins, University of Michigan Zusammenfassung Through Victorian art, opera, and novels, this title examines how sexuality and desire, the politics of culture, and the role of religion in society were considered and debated through the Victorian obsession with antiquity. It offers insights into how the Victorian sense of antiquity and our sense of the Victorians came into being. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of Illustrations vii INTRODUCTION: Discipline and Revolution: Classics in Victorian Culture 1 PART 1. ART AND DESIRE CHAPTER ONE: The Art of Reception: J. W. Waterhouse and the Painting of Desire in Victorian Britain 23 Fleshliness and Purity 26 Visualizing Desire! Elsewhere 45 Off the Chocolate Box 62 CHAPTER TWO: The Touch of Sappho 65 Viewed in the Light of Greece 66 Touching 72 Sappho on the Strand 79 PART 2. MUSIC AND CULTURAL POLITICS CHAPTER THREE: Who Killed Chevalier Gluck? 87 Revolutionary Opera 90 The Art of Crying and the Happy Ending 97 Disinterring a Classic 104 The German Way 112 London Fashion 116 CHAPTER FOUR: Wagner's Greeks: The Politics of Hellenism 125 "To be half a day a Greek!" 127 Staging the Sonderweg 134 Endeavoring to Forget 140 PART 3. FICTION: VICTORIAN NOVELS OF ANCIENT ROME CHAPTER FIVE: For God and Empire 153 Every Book Needs a Hero 153 Whose History? 163 Fictionalizing the Past 177 CHAPTER SIX: Virgins! Lions! and Honest Pluck 193 The Knebworth Apollo 193 The Fiction of the Church 202 The Best-Selling Novel in America 215 The Harry Potter Effect 223 Jews! Egyptians! and Other Cliches of the Popular Sublime 231 SEVEN: Only Connect! 245 The Life of the Aut...
