A Companion to Romanticism

The Companion to Romanticism is a major introductory survey by an international collection of scholars, whose 52 specially commissioned contributions are aimed specifically at a student readership. Divided into four parts – Contexts and Perspectives 1790–1830; Readings; Genres and Modes; and Issues and Debates – the Companion provides students new to the subject with a vital orientation and foundation for study, and also offers senior and graduate students an important focus upon new developments and possible future directions. Contexts and perspectives vital to our understanding of the origins and evolution of the concept of Romanticism are elucidated in a section of eight introductory essays. There follow 22 readings of key texts, canonical and postcanonical, from Wordsworth′s Prelude (by Johnathan Wordsworth) to Joanna Baillie′s A Series of Plays (by Janice Patten) and Felicia Heman′s Records of Woman (by Adams Roberts). A section on genres and modes includes Frederick on ′The Romantic Drama′, John Sutherland on ′The Novel′ and David Maill on ′Gothic Fiction′. In a final group of essays 15 contributors explore key issues and debates.

Introduction. Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. . Part I: Contexts and Perspectives 1790–1830. 1. Romanticism: The Brief History of a Concept (Seamus Perry). 2. Preromanticism (Michael Tolley). 3. From Revolution to Romanticism: The Historical Context from 1800 (David Duff). 4. Beyond the Enlightenment: the Philosophical, Scientific, and Religious Inheritance (Peter Kitson). 5. Britain at War: The Historical Context (Philip Shaw). 6. Literature and Religion (Maey Wedd). 7. The Picturesque, the Beautiful, and the Sublime (Nicola Trott). 8. The Romantic Reader (Stephen C. Behrendt) . Part II: Readings. 9. William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience ( Nelson Hilton). 10. Edmund Burke, Reflections Upon the Revolution in France ( David Bromwich). 11. Charlotte Smith, The Old Manor House ( Miranda Burgess). 12. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, and Christabel ( Seamus Perry). 13. Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads ( Scott McEathron). 14. Dorothy Wordsworth, Journals ( Pamela Woof). 15. Joanna Baillie, A Series of Plays (Janice Patten). 16. William Wordsworth, The Prelude ( Jonathan Wordsworth). 17. Poetry of the Anti–Jacobin (John Strachan). 18. Mary Tighe, Psyche ( John Anderson). 19. Charlotte Smith, Beachy Head ( Jacqueline Labbe). 20. Walter Scott, Waverley (Fiona Robertson). 21. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice ( Beth Lau). 22. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein ( John Beer). 23. John Keats, Odes (John Creaser). 24. George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan ( Jane Stabler). 25. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound ( Michael O′Neill). 26. Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium–Eater ( Damian Walford Davies). 27. Charles Lamb, Elia ( Duncan Wu). 28. William Hazlitt, Spirit of the Age ( Bonnie Woodbery). 29. Letitia Landon (L. E. L.), The Improvisatrice ( Adam Roberts). 30. John Clare, The Shepherd′s Calendar ( John Lucas). 31. Felicia Hemans, Records of Woman ( Adam Roberts) . Part III: Genres and Modes. 32. The Romantic Drama (Frederick Burwick). 33. The Novel (John Sutherland). 34. Gothic Fiction (David S. Miall). 35. Parody and Imitation (Graeme Stones). 36. Travel Writing (James A. Butler). 37. Romantic Literary Criticism (Seamus Perry) . Part IV: Issues and Debates. 38. Romanticism and Gender (Susan J. Wolfson). 39. Romanticism and Feminism (Elizabeth Fay). 40. New Historicism (David Simpson). 41. Romantic Ecology (Tony Pinkney). 42. Psychological Approaches (Douglas B. Wilson). 43. Dialogic Approaches (Michael James Sider). 44. The Romantic Fragment (Anne Janowitz). 45. Performative Language and Speech–Act Theory (Angela Easthammer). 46. Slavery and Romantic Writing (Alan Richardson). 47. Apocalypse and Millennium (Morton D. Paley). 48. The Romantic Imagination (Jonathan Wordsworth). 49. England and Germany (Rosemary Ashton). 50. Romantic Responses to Science (Ian Wylie). 51. Shakespeare and the Romantics (Frederick Burwick). 52. Milton and the Romantics (Nicola Trott). Index.

Duncan Wu is Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow. His numerous publications include Romanticism: An Anthology, Second Edition (1998), Romanticism: A Critical Reader (1995), Romantic Women Poets: An Anthology (1997), an edition of William Wordsworth′s The Five–Book Prelude (1997) and, with Tom Paulin, of William Hazlitt′s The Plain–Speaker: Key Essays (1998), all available from Blackwell Publishers. He has collaborated with David Miall in preparing Blackwell Publishers′ Romanticism: The CD–Rom and is the editor of a nine volume edition of The Selected Writings of William Hazlitt (1998).

"A major contribution to our understanding and appreciation of the period in which Wordsworth and his contemporaries lived and worked." The Keswick Reminder "It is a collection which will no doubt have extensive use in any library. It provides a sound and up–to–date introduction to contexts, ideas, approaches and texts, and frequently goes further than a mere introduction." Chris Jones, University of Wales, Bangor "Meticulously scholarly. An essential student course book." Year′s Work in English Studies