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Brimming with the fascinating eccentricities of a complex and confusing movement whose influences continue to resonate deeply, 30 Great Myths About the Romantics adds great clarity to what we know - or think we know - about one of the most important periods in literary history.
* Explores the various misconceptions commonly associated with Romanticism, offering provocative insights that correct and clarify several of the commonly-held myths about the key figures of this era
* Corrects some of the biases and beliefs about the Romantics that have crept into the 21st-century zeitgeist - for example that they were a bunch of drug-addled atheists who believed in free love; that Blake was a madman; and that Wordsworth slept with his sister
* Celebrates several of the mythic objects, characters, and ideas that have passed down from the Romantics into contemporary culture - from Blake's Jerusalem and Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn to the literary genre of the vampire
* Engagingly written to provide readers with a fun yet scholarly introduction to Romanticism and key writers of the period, applying the most up-to-date scholarship to the series of myths that continue to shape our appreciation of their work
List of contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction xiii
A Note on Monetary Values xxvii
Myth 1 Romanticism began in 1798 1
Myth 2 English Romanticism was a reaction against the Enlightenment 8
Myth 3 The Romantics hated the sciences 17
Myth 4 The Romantics repudiated the Augustans, especially Pope and Dryden 29
Myth 5 The Romantic poets were misunderstood, solitary geniuses 40
Myth 6 Romantic poems were produced by spontaneous inspiration 49
Myth 7 Blake was mad 58
Myth 8 Blake wrote 'Jerusalem' as an anthem to Englishness 66
Myth 9 Lyrical Ballads (1798) was designed to illustrate 'the two cardinal points of poetry', using poems about everyday life and the supernatural 74
Myth 10 Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads was a manifesto for the Romantic revolution 82
Myth 11 Wordsworth had an incestuous relationship with his sister 90
Myth 12 Tory Wordsworth 98
Myth 13 The person from Porlock 108
Myth 14 Jane Austen had an incestuous relationship with her sister 115
Myth 15 The Keswick rapist 124
Myth 16 Byron had an affair with his sister 132
Myth 17 Byron was a great lover of women 140
Myth 18 Byron was a champion of democracy 149
Myth 19 Byron was a 'noble warrior' who died fighting for Greek freedom 156
Myth 20 Shelley committed suicide by sailboat 166
Myth 21 Shelley's heart 175
Myth 22 Keats's 'humble origins' 185
Myth 23 Keats was gay 193
Myth 24 Keats was killed by a review 203
Myth 25 Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote Frankenstein 212
Myth 26 Women writers were an exploited underclass - unknown, unloved, and unpaid 220
Myth 27 The Romantics were atheists 232
Myth 28 The Romantics were counter-cultural drug users 242
Myth 29 The Romantics practised free love on principle 251
Myth 30 The Romantics were the rock stars of their day 261
Coda 270
Further Reading 277
Index 283
About the author
Duncan Wu is Professor of English at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is the editor of
Romanticism: An Anthology, 4th edition (WileyBlackwell, 2012), and the author of books about Romanticism, Wordsworth, and Hazlitt.
Summary
Brimming with the fascinating eccentricities of a complex and confusing movement whose influences continue to resonate deeply, 30 Great Myths About the Romantics adds great clarity to what we know or think we know about one of the most important periods in literary history.
Report
"Wu is not a scholar who trades in faddish or modish opinion, and as its title implies, this is by its very nature an exercise in controversy and debate. The book represents a triumph of individual scholarship over what is claimed as often flawed, albeit consensual, critical opinion. Wu's fluid, readable prose is accessible to all, and his extensive and subtle insights are a joy to read. This unique addition to the student bookshelf provides enjoyment and instruction simultaneously." --Jane Moore, Cardiff University
