Burke to Byron

Description

This volume provides an introduction to Romantic period texts for students and teachers. Each chapter places key works of drama, poetry and prose in their cultural context and demonstrates how historically-informed close-reading can enrich our view of British literature. Framing chapters on the years 1790 and 1830 explore the transitions that shaped Romantic literature from 18th-century Enlightenment culture to the revolutionary expectations of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the Victorian era. The book examines not only the "Big Six" (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats), but also a fuller range of writers from the period, including women writers such as Anne Barbauld and Sarah Baillie.

JANE STABLER is Lecturer in English at the University of Dundee.

'[This book] provides a sweeping view of the period formerly known as The Romantic Age, with fresh readings of familiar texts and excellent analyses of women writers...The great strength of this book is that it integrates genres and confounds easy distinctions between high and low culture, formal poetry and life writing...Stabler thinks broadly and self-consciously about periods and periodization, but is also a perceptive close reader of texts...The book also includes a detailed chronology, annotated bibliography...and a useful glossary of terms.' - Judith Page, Professor of Romantic Studies, University of Florida