30 Great Myths about the Romantics - Paperback

by Duncan Wu (Author)

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

Back Jacket

Were the Romantics a bunch of drug-addled atheists who believed in free love? Was Blake a madman? And did Wordsworth really sleep with his sister? Few literary periods are less understood yet include more mythologized figures than the British Romantics - and most of the myths swirling about them are far from romantic. 30 Great Myths About the Romantics features a collection of thought provoking essays that address a range of commonly-held beliefs about key figures of the Romantic era - and about Romanticism itself.

Author Duncan Wu's goal is twofold: to correct some of the biases and misconceptions about the Romantics that have crept into modern critical discussion and to celebrate the mythic concepts, characters and objects that have passed down from the Romantics into contemporary culture (from Blake's Jerusalem and the person from Porlock to Shelley's elusive heart). Brimming with the foibles, follies, and eccentricities of the greatest writers in literary history, 30 Great Myths About the Romantics brings clarity to what we know - or think we know - about one of the most important periods in literary history.

Author Biography

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.