Romantic Metropolis: The Urban Scene of British Culture, 1780–1840 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521839017 ISBN 13: 9780521839013

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2005

Synopsis

This 2005 collection of essays challenges the traditional conception that British Romanticism was rooted in nature and rural life, by showing that much of what was new about Romanticism was born in the city. The essays examine the works and events of the Romantic period from the point of view of the urban world, where rapid developments in population, industry, communication, trade, and technology set the stage and the tone for many of the great achievements in literature and culture. The great metropolis appears as both fact and figure: London is its paradigm, but the metropolitan perspective is also borrowed and projected elsewhere. In this volume, some of the most exciting critics of Romanticism explore diverse cultural productions from poems and paintings, to exhibition sites, panoramas, and political organizations to do long-overdue justice to the place of the city - both as topic and as location - in British Romanticism.

About this title

Review:

Review of the hardback: 'This cityscape is both importantly represented in, and crucial locus for, Romantic period creativity, and this volume emphasises these facets in a way that has not before been undertaken.' BARS Bulletin and Review

Review of the hardback: 'Romantic Metropolis as a whole compels us to re-examine the way our own conception of Romanticism has been invented by excluding everything but what Hazlitt and other 'major' Romantics upheld to forger the image of the 'serious' and solitary Romantic artist. This collection of enlightening essays constitutes a valuable and vitalising contribution to ever-expanding Romantic scholarship.' Studies in English Literature

Book Description:

These 2005 essays challenge the traditional conception that British Romanticism was rooted in rural life, by showing that much of what was new about Romanticism was born in the city. Some of the most exciting critics of Romanticism do long-overdue justice to the place of the city in British Romanticism.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0521839017
• ISBN 13: 9780521839013
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 306
• Editor: Chandler James, Gilmartin Kevin