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Romanticism and Revolution: A Readerpresents an anthology of the key texts that both defined the debate over the French Revolution during the 1790s and influenced the Romantic authors.
* Presents readings chronologically to allow readers to experience the unfolding of the debate as it occurred in the 1790s
* Provides an accessible and in-depth sampling of the major contributors to the Revolution debate, from Price, Burke, and Paine to Wollstonecraft and Godwin
List of contents
Preface and Acknowledgements.
A Note on the Texts.Introduction.
1. Richard Price, A Discourse on the Love of Our Country.
[What has the love of their country hitherto been among mankind?][A narrower interest must give way to a more extensive interest].
[Every degree of illumination ... hastens the overthrow of priestcraft and tyranny].
[The principles of the Revolution].
[Be encouraged, all ye friends of freedom and writers in its defence!]2. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London relative to That Event.
[All the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction].
[The public declaration of a man much connected with literary caballers].
[The two principles of conservation and correction].
[The very idea of the fabrication of a new government, is enough to fill us with disgust and horror].
[Our liberties, as an entailed inheritance derived to us from our forefathers].
[Their blow was aimed at an hand holding out graces, favours, and immunities].
[A profligate disregard of a dignity which they partake with others].
[The real rights of men].
[But the age of chivalry is gone. - That of sophisters, oeconomists, and calculators, has succeeded].
[The real tragedy of this triumphal day].
[We have not ... lost the generosity and dignity of thinking of the fourteenth century].
[Society is indeed a contract].
[The political Men of Letters].
[We do not draw the moral lessons we might from history].
[By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little].
[Old establishments ... are the results of various necessities and expediencies].
[Some popular general ... shall draw the eyes of all men upon himself].
3. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke.
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[I have not yet learned to twist my periods, nor ... to disguise my sentiments].
[I perceive ... that you have a mortal antipathy to reason].
[The champion of property, the adorer of the golden image which power has set up].
[Misery, to reach your heart, I perceive, must have its cap and bells].
[In reprobating Dr. Price s opinions you might have spared the man].
[The younger children have been sacrificed to the eldest son].
[The respect paid to rank and fortune damps every generous purpose of the soul].
[The spirit of romance and chivalry is in the wane; and reason will gain by its extinction].
[Reason at second-hand].
[This fear of God makes me reverence myself].
[The cold arguments of reason, that give no sex to virtue].
[What were the outrages of a day to these continual miseries?].
4. Thomas Paine, Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke s Attack on the French Revolution.
[The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave].
[Mr. Burke has set up a sort of political Adam, in whom all posterity are bound for ever].
[Mr. Burke does not attend to the distinction between men and principles].
[The Quixote age of chivalry nonsense is gone].
[Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity].
[We are now got at the origin of man, and at the origin of his rights].
[The natural rights of man ... the civil rights of man].
[Governments must have arisen, either out of the people, or over the people].
[Titles are but nick-names ... a sort of foppery in the human character which degrades it].
[Toleration is not the opposite of Intolerance, but is the counterfeit of it].
[The church with the state, a sort of mule animal].
Miscellaneous Chapter.
Conclusion.
[In mixed Governments there is no responsibility].
[The Revolutions of America and France, are a renovation of the natural order of things].
[It is an age of Revolutions, in which every thing may be looked for].
5. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subje
About the author
Jon Mee is Professor of Romanticism Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. He has also taught at the Australian National University, the University of Delhi, the University of Chicago and the University of Oxford.
David Fallon is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at St Anne's College, University of Oxford, UK. He is currently writing a book on
William Blake, Myth, and Enlightenment.
Summary
Romanticism and Revolution: A Reader presents an anthology of the key texts that both defined the debate over the French Revolution and influenced the Romantic authors. The anthology features an accessible and in-depth sampling of the major contributors to the 'Revolution debate' - from Price, Burke, and Paine to Wollstonecraft and Godwin.
