Romanticism Books

Although arguably the greatest painter of horses to date, British artist George Stubbs (1724 - 1806) would never imagine the prices his canvases would some day command. Some 40 years ago the late Paul Mellon added to his collection of Stubbs's work with a check for tens of thousands of dollars, today anyone lucky enough to come across an available Stubbs had better have a million to spare. London's National Gallery paid 11 million pounds for a life-sized painting of the thoroughbred "Whistlejacket," a monumental work breathtaking in majesty and beauty.

Those fortunate enough to visit the Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum though early February of this year will be able to see not only this incredible piece but the finest works of Stubbs in the first major collection to fully capture his genius as a painter of horses.

Almost as good as being at the Kimbell is leafing through "Stubbs & The Horse," an exquisite 256 page volume holding 200 illustrations. Authors Malcolm Warner and Robin Blake present a comprehensive portrait of Stubbs, as Warner discusses the low regard in which the British held horses in Stubbs's time, the surprising connection the artist's horse-and-lion compositions, and the evolution of the English thoroughbred. Offering a different perspective Blake tells us of the Whig nobles who were Stubbs's initial patrons and offers insights into the inclusion of the grooms, jockeys, trainers and other figures in the artist's paintings.

As Warner notes in his Preface, "The horse was at once the mainstay of Stubbs's success and a problem for his reputation. In his lifetime he attracted much praise for his abilities as a painter of horses.......But this won him little prestige in his profession." In fact. During Stubbs's time British artistic tastes ran to paintings of historical events, myths, the Bible, and allegory. A painter of horses was rather low in popular opinion.

Nonetheless, Stubbs persisted in his study of equine anatomy eventually rendering remarkable ink drawings which presaged his later paintings. He would later take these anatomical drawings to London where they were well received, and resulted in several commissions. Eventually he acquired an enviable reputation as an equestrian painter and earned a comfortable living from equine enthusiasts.

Stubbs lived to the age of 81, and died in 1806. Throughout his life many considered his incredibly beautiful lifelike work to be second class. History has deemed it quite differently.

- Gail Cooke

Excellent purchase. I saw this book in the National Gallery, London having just viewed Whistle Jacket. I wanted it because my own passion lies in painting Horses. The book is full of fascinating information on Stubbs himself, his love of horses and has his excellent illustrations / studies of equine anatomy. A useful and beautiful book filled with his striking paintings.

This book is outstanding. The plates are all in color and large enough to see easily. Stubbs anatomical drawings are very detailed. I had been having trouble understanding how horses moved before I saw those drawings. Seeing the skeleton and muscles helped considerably. When I took it to class and showed my professor, she got online and bought one for herself. She draws/paints horses beautifully and owns horses herself.

Reading the background information about George Stubbs and the symbolism used in his paintings was very interesting and educational.

Beautiful presentation of the work of William Morris - genius designer and illustrator of the Arts and Crafts movement. Beautiful illustrations and reproductions of his work - a great book for any student and artist as well as a graphic designer that has an appreciation for history and beauty.

Painstakingly compiled and expertly edited by Diane Waggoner (Andrew W. Mellon foundation Curatorial Fellow in the Art Collections at The Huntington), The Beauty Of Life: William Morris & The Art Of Design is specifically devoted to the decorative artwork of William Morris, an influential leader of the British Arts and Crafts movement. Contemplative and informative essays by Pat Kirkham, Gillian Naylor, and Edward R. Bosley are added to those of Diane Waggoner and concern William Morris' diverse works of art (including his stained glass and interior decoration designs). These essays are enhanced with eye-catching, full color photographs. A joy to simply page through and savor, and presented with a deep respect for artistic traditions stretching back to medieval times and beyond, The Beauty Of Life is a superbly presented and heartily endorsed addition to personal, professional, academic, and community library Art History collections.

This should be considered indispensable to anyone interested in this artist, Romanticism, or landscape painting in general. As well as offering a carefully considered account of the artist's life and work, the text is careful to separate the myths that have grown around some of these paintings, carefully placing the artist within the context of his own time and covering the manner in which these images have been misappropriated up to the present day.

Above all, this is the most thorough and best-reproduced representation of this artist's work I have seen to date, containing not only every single painting I have seen from other studies of the artist, but also several I encountered here for the first time. I doubt this will be equalled (let alone surpassed) for many years to come.

Werner Hofmann's new monograph on Caspar David Friedrich benefits from superb colour reproductions as well as Hofmann's own discursive brilliance.

Selections from Friedrich's letters are a neat fit, bowing to the idea that his transcendental painting ultimately eludes scholarly discourse.

This book lands with authority, passion, and a keen sense of the vistas of silence that Friedrich communicates to admirers everywhere.

A bargain. Snap it up if you come across it...

Friedrich's work celebrates the solitude of the soul & man's union with nature. It is lonely, bleak & brilliant. It transports you to another place & time, one far removed from the chaos of modern life. This must be the definative work on CDF, so far as i know. A "must have", if ever there were one.

This highly illustrative tome includes pencil sketches and tracings showing lines of force for Friedrich's major works. In addition, an in-depth discussion of his life, including cultural and socio-political influences, is discussed concurrent with a review of not only his major masterpieces, but his minor, early works as well. An absolute must for anyone who has become enamored with his work, or the work of other similar sublime, landscape artists of the period.

EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT! Three enthusiastic cheers for the wisdom contained in this book, and of course its author, Jacques Barzun. Coming from the point of view of a thoughtful newcomer to the discourse of culture and society, this book is an eye-opening, and incredibly useful find. I must also acknowledge my gratfulness to the unknown reviewer from Dallas, Texas who recommended this book as further reading for those who had read THE ROOTS OF ROMANTICISM by Isaiah Berlin.

CLASSIC, ROMANTIC, AND MODERN grapples with the questions concerning Western Culture: "Who were we, who are we, and who will we be?," not only in the arts, but in history, politics, economics, science and society in general. The last chapter seems to predict the current post-modern culturual revolution, and not only identifies its impetus, but puts it in a context that is intelligible and sensible. Nihlism has a point. It has a motivation. And with this, Mr. Barzun gives us hope, with much evidence, that because we are human and carry with us the impulse to create, culture and civilization can never die. Out of the nothing will come something... new.

In order to illustrate to the reader the cycle of Western culture and history, Mr. Barzun first addresses the ill-labeled and misinformed opinions and meanings upon the term "romanticism." He shows in great detail how the word came to be used synonymously with the word "unreal," and goes on to demonstrate how romanticism, and its aims, is anything but un-real. He writes in eloquent detail how the Classicists and Rationalists of the Enlightenment were far more unrealistic and dreamy-eyed than the later Romanticists. Barzun shows how the Enlightenment was in fact the cause of Romanticism, and how Romanticism utilized and expanded upon the notions of the Enlightenment. The Romanticists did this not by rejecting reason, as some would lead us to believe, but by expanding the over-generalized and reductionistic definition of mankind and life from merely reason and ideas to also include emotion, instinct, faith, will, and all of the other aspects of reality (for the idividual and society) that the rationalists ignored. In short, Mr. Barzun shows us the bredth of history and attempts to correct our common misapprehensions. He seems to admire both the Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Romanticism, while at the same time recognizing their weaknesses. And lastly, he shows how the modern period direclty flowed and was influenced by both of the preceeding Ages. We are a product of history.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a comprehensive view of cultural history and philosophy, or to anyone who simpy wanted to know what "Romanticism" meant and how that age relates to ours. The book is especially useful for combating anti-romantic sentiment, and for putting so called "irrational" philosophies in a context that allows the reader to appreciate them and their alleged antithesis, the philosophies of Reason.

Well written and excellent. I can't parise this book enough.

EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT! Three enthusiastic cheers for the wisdom contained in this book, and of course its author, Jacques Barzun. Coming from the point of view of a thoughtful newcomer to the discourse of culture and society, this book is an eye-opening, and incredibly useful find. I must also acknowledge my gratfulness to the unknown reviewer from Dallas, Texas who recommended this book as further reading for those who had read THE ROOTS OF ROMANTICISM by Isaiah Berlin.

CLASSIC, ROMANTIC, AND MODERN grapples with the questions concerning Western Culture: "Who were we, who are we, and who will we be?," not only in the arts, but in history, politics, economics, science and society in general. The last chapter seems to predict the current post-modern culturual revolution, and not only identifies its impetus, but puts it in a context that is intelligible and sensible. Nihlism has a point. It has a motivation. And with this, Mr. Barzun gives us hope, with much evidence, that because we are human and carry with us the impulse to create, culture and civilization can never die. Out of the nothing will come something... new.

In order to illustrate to the reader the cycle of Western culture and history, Mr. Barzun first addresses the ill-labeled and misinformed opinions and meanings upon the term "romanticism." He shows in great detail how the word came to be used synonymously with the word "unreal," and goes on to demonstrate how romanticism, and its aims, is anything but un-real. He writes in eloquent detail how the Classicists and Rationalists of the Enlightenment were far more unrealistic and dreamy-eyed than the later Romanticists. Barzun shows how the Enlightenment was in fact the cause of Romanticism, and how Romanticism utilized and expanded upon the notions of the Enlightenment. The Romanticists did this not by rejecting reason, as some would lead us to believe, but by expanding the over-generalized and reductionistic definition of mankind and life from merely reason and ideas to also include emotion, instinct, faith, will, and all of the other aspects of reality (for the idividual and society) that the rationalists ignored. In short, Mr. Barzun shows us the bredth of history and attempts to correct our common misapprehensions. He seems to admire both the Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Romanticism, while at the same time recognizing their weaknesses. And lastly, he shows how the modern period direclty flowed and was influenced by both of the preceeding Ages. We are a product of history.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a comprehensive view of cultural history and philosophy, or to anyone who simpy wanted to know what "Romanticism" meant and how that age relates to ours. The book is especially useful for combating anti-romantic sentiment, and for putting so called "irrational" philosophies in a context that allows the reader to appreciate them and their alleged antithesis, the philosophies of Reason.

Well written and excellent. I can't praise this book enough.

Tome it may concern: big up to the Buffa from the Flamstead End massive!

Cuffley and Goffs Oak been dissing the Gothic for too long, but there ain't no contesting it now - tha Buffa has spoken and HIS WORD IS LAW.

Walpole, Scott - the whole damn lot; your reputation is on a firm footing.

Respect.

What can I say. This is a must buy for anyone with even a vague interest in Gothic Literature. Watt manages to totally re-evaluate a series of widely held premises surrounding the very core structure of 'Gothic' as a totallity. It should be part of your collection.

Dancing in the Dark shows us how to live the inspired life, to embrace life and breathe every moment into and out of it. Whether it is something as simple as a walk in the park or as special as a visit to the Prado Museum, Barbara Lazear Ascher puts a spring back in our step and gives us that little push we so often need to get back on track and be thankful we're alive! Here's to life and to Barbara!

This is one of those books where the blurb on the back is absolutely right. Pat Conroy said of this book, ..."You read it and wonder aloud why you have not asked more for yourself. You want to tear yourself away from your own sleepwalking life and shout, 'Now!' What a wonderful book!" Indeed.

This collection of poetry is fantastic, and on top of that Perkins provides a brief biography of each of the poets.

This book of poetry depicts, displays, and describes the minds of the 18th and 19th centuries like no other. With great excerpts from Coleridge, Keats, and Wordsworth that anyone not only a lover of poetry can apprieciate.

This is a wonderfully argued work, combining a defense of formalist criticism with an erudite argument about British Romantic poetry's awareness of the formalist conventions in which it participates. The readings of the five canonical Romantic poets--Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Byron, and Shelley--that Wolfson executes here are highly original and compelling and are certain to affect future considerations of the works about which she writes. Perhaps more far-reaching is her introductory chapter, "Formal Intelligence: Formalism, Romanticism, and Formalist Criticism" which provides a detailed account of the interwoven careers of historicism and formalism in the Anglo-American literary critical tradition. The discussion in that chapter is sure to be useful to students of literary criticism for years to come.

In this meticulously argued book, Susan Wolfson pursues two distinct but closely related projects: a defense of formalist criticism and an argument about Romantic poetry's awareness of the formal conventions in which it participates. While both projects are fully developed and expertly argued, the second is a result of the first, an example of the insights that might follow from the evolved formalism Wolfson outlines in the book's introduction and brief afterword. The first project, therefore, most immediately commands our attention. Wolfson's defense of formalism also commands our attention because of its courage and polemical fervor. In the contemporary critical climate, the formalist critic receives little respect, viewed by its most generous detractors as retrograde and by its harshest as reactionary and inimical to social progress. The title of Wolfson's book, Formal Charges: The Shaping of Poetry in British Romanticism, slyly alludes to the outlaw status of the formalist critic. Formalism's stained reputation can, no doubt, be attributed to the excesses of its most influential and controversial incarnation, New Criticism; but, as Wolfson notes, New Criticism is not the whole story of formalism. Despite attempts by later theoretical modes to move beyond formalism, form has proven tenacious, if only because form defines the object of study. While it has persisted, formalism has also been severely weakened as critical attention has shifted from the intricacies of poetic formings of language to the social and historical contexts in which works are produced. If Wolfson's title alludes to the outlaw status of the formalist critic, it also suggests that form is the "charge" or obligation of the literary critic, a charge to which criticism of the last twenty years has been derelict in attending. In her introductory chapter, "Formal Intelligence: Formalism, Romanticism, and Formalist Criticism," in which she provides a thorough account of the interwoven careers of formalism and Romanticism, Wolfson takes aim at the anti-formalist reactions that have leveled the most serious blows to formalist theory and practice. These reactions can be generally classified under the rubrics of deconstruction and New Historicism. While deconstruction was certainly a potent force in the dissolution of formalism's hold on critical practice, it has too been supplanted, leaving the now-dominant New Historicism as Wolfson's most formidable opponent. Under the umbrella of New Historicism, one finds such familiar figures as Jerome McGann and Marjorie Levinson as well as others, such as Terry Eagleton and Pierre Bourdieu, who are usually classified in other categories. Uniting this disparate group of theorists is an interest in the ways in which literary form resolves social contradictions on the level of aesthetic experience. There are two main objections that Wolfson has to this account of literary form. First, the historicist declares a healthy suspicion of aesthetic forms that mask and that are complicit with prevailing ideologies, thereby liberating himself or herself from the "forms of fetishism" (Bourdieu's phrase) that manacled and blinded the New Critic. But, as Wolfson notes in a consideration of Bourdieu's "Censorship and the Imposition of Form" in the book's afterword, this method only replaces a fixation on literary form with a fixation on social form: "What is curious about these stories is the way the (purported) New Critical reification of aesthetic form, overtly despised, returns as a more pervasive ideological formation. This is still formalism, shifted from aesthetic agency to social determination" (229). While the consideration of Bourdieu's essay is fair, it is noteworthy that other arguments in his oeuvre-arguments that support Wolfson's theses-are left unexplored. In his anthropological writing, such as Outline of a Theory of Practice and Distinction, Bourdieu has seemed willing, at least in theory, to grant some agency to the object of study and to divest the critic (or, in the case of these works, ethnographer) of some of his or her interpretive authority. This directly relates to the second objection that Wolfson has to New Historicism's interest in "resolvable form" and its corollary emphasis on organic form in its treatment of the Romantics. By viewing aesthetic form as the site where historical and social contradictions and conflicts are resolved, critics like Eagleton and McGann afford form no agency in the critique of culture. Only the critic is allowed the opportunity to address the contradictions that literary form is alleged to resolve. Form itself can only register these contradictions when it ruptures or collapses. Attention to the devices of form, in this anti-formalist account of its workings, becomes an empty, almost tautological gesture. For Wolfson, this view is myopic and incites her most vituperative remarks about New Historicism's regard of form: "Too many readers today accept Eagleton's marginalizing, simplifying, or simply dismissive attention to poetic form as a labor of `reductive operations,' an exercise `preoccupied simply with analyzing linguistic devices'" (19). The bold labeling of Eagleton's approach as "simplifying" and "dismissive" is atypical in an otherwise even-handed treatment and is perhaps attributable to the sentence's emphasis on readers. If contemporary readers cause the strongest response in Wolfson, the response seems to be motivated by a genuine fear that attention to form will continue to atrophy as a generation of critics and scholars who reached maturity without a rigorous formalist background continue to pursue social context over poetic event. Although Wolfson strenuously challenges several forms of anti-formalist reaction, she ultimately does not dismiss them entirely. New Criticism's one unforgivable sin in these pages is its ahistoricism. In a brief consideration of Cleanth Brooks's The Well-Wrought Urn, Wolfson argues that anti-formalist critics and New Critical practitioners "usually elide a dialectic with historicism" that Brooks gestures toward (6). Wolfson's project seems determined to foreground this dialectic. One could argue that the "refreshed formalism" for which she argues is actually a refreshed historicism. Indeed, one of the ironies of the book is that the most compelling and far-reaching chapter, the introduction, is one that historicizes formalism rather than enacts the formalism it advocates. The refreshed formalism for which she argues is relatively and intentionally under-theorized. Wolfson proposes a focus on "poetic practices" and "poetic events," which are defined as "those stanzas, verses, meters, rhymes, and the line" (3). Focusing on these events in the performances of Romantic poetry, Wolfson contends that "Romantic poems reflect on rather than conceal their constructedness (not only aesthetic, but social and ideological)" (14). On the surface, this thesis shares much with Stuart Curran's now seminal Poetic Form and British Romanticism (1986). But, by focusing on the particular and local event instead of broader issues of genre and reception theory, Wolfson distinguishes her contribution from Curran's. She offers her formalism as a "theory in action," a decision that may leave some readers wishing for more theoretical development but one that saves her from making the types of totalizing claims she seems determined to resist. In the six chapters that follow the introduction, Wolfson deploys the unarticulated theory in thorough, highly original considerations of each of the canonical Romantic poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley.

Vaughan's keen eye and impeccable scholarship provide a superb overview of German Romantic painting for newcomers and seasoned scholars alike.

This volume is a seminal addition to any art refrence library.

Vaughan's keen eye and impeccable scholarship provide a superb overview of German Romantic painting for newcomers and seasoned scholars alike.

This volume is a seminal addition to any art refrence library.