Romanticism Books

For someone new to the art of Casper David Friedrich, the first emotional response is that of awe. The color and compositions of Friedrich's work are humbling and humane at the same time. The artistic idealism found in his work is an organic out-growth of Friedrich's Protestant mystical piety at the zenith of German Romantic philosophical fervor.
Much metaphor, symbolism and perspective are at play within these works, that lead to an enobling of the human spirit. This is a perfect gift for anyone who is just beginning to increase their knowledge of 19th century European art.

Koerner has written a philosophical masterpiece in the form of an art book. Caspar David Friedrich is one of the most complex and thought-provoking of nineteenth-century artists, whose whose exploration of perception shows up in his most mundane paintings as well as his most grandiose.
Koerner shows us how even a painting of something as simple as a bushy thicket in the snow contains many subtle contradictions and complexities that baffle the eye as we examine it more closely. The apparent simplicity and underlying intensity of many of his works is similar to that of Edward Hopper, on whom he seems to have been a major influence (and this book bears comparison with Kranzfelder's "Hopper").
Friedrich specialized in painting the human figure seen from behind (rueckenfigur), and this ties in with sense of nostalgia that is a major component of his art. A really notable example of this is "Abbey Graveyard under Snow", a painting of a ruined mediaeval monastery with a spectral procession of monks from a bygone age; this painting was destroyed by bombing in 1945 and exists only in reproduction - a ghostly painting of ghosts.
Koerner's dense prose is heavy going, but well worth the effort because it contains so much; the author evidently has a thorough grounding in philosophy as well as a great sympathy for his subject.
The last chapter is entitled "deja vu", and this sums up one of the main feelings aroused by this art. The last sentence is worth quoting:
"And it arrests you on the Dresden heath, before the thicket in winter, when what you thought were just alders in the snow are fragments of your darkest history".

Sabine Rewald's Caspar David Friedrich is one of the most striking discussions to evolve from recent art books: it presents the works of a major German painter who included pictures of the moon in practically every painting he produced in the 1800s. A number of his works are featured along with details about what was known of the moon in Friedrich's lifetime, and the artist's Dresden friends. A gorgeous presentation.

Originally a series of lectures from 1947-48, when the Romantics were held in something less than high literary esteem, this insightful volume did much to restore them to their rightful place as major poets. The emphasis is on the importance of the Imagination: in making full use of this uniquely human power, the Romantics felt that they contributed something new & illuminating to the experience of life, rather than simply providing pretty escapism.

Bowra begins with an examination of this visionary outlook, and then turns to specific examples: Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience," Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and so on through the major Romantics & their heirs, such as Christina Rossetti & Swinburne. Each poet's work is explored with precision, empathy, intelligence, and clarity. Finally, he concludes with a finely balanced assessment of their overall achievement.

For those who love the Romantics, for those who wish to know more about them, for those who wonder why we should even care about such poetry, this book is indispensable. Most highly recommended!

The author defines "cult" novels as those that speak "not only to the reader but for him" -- not a bad description. As a college student in the early 1960s, I was swept up (along with everyone else) by the cult authors of the day, especially Burgess, Tolkien, Heinlein, Kesey, Brautigan, and Vonnegut. (I managed to avoid Castenada and Hesse, I'm relieved to say. . . .) All of them are included among the fifty authors profiled and analyzed in this essay collection, though the author apparently whittled his original list down considerably. While I don't agree with all of his observations -- I think Hunter Thompson has long been vastly overrated, for instance -- he's so often right on the money, I found myself jotting down those titles I hadn't read in decades, plus a few I had missed entirely. For an avid reader who is always looking for other people's thoughtful suggestions of what to read, this is a first-rate volume.

This strange little book also has a strange distinction - it is Thomas De Quincey's first important work and in the revised edition, his last important work. Mr De Quincey regarded himself as "the Pope" of the poppy and his work reflects the dreams he had while under the influence of opium.

When the book first came out (1822), some reviewers thought it was Coleridge's work - Mr De Quincey had to prove he indeed wrote it. Despite the use of the word "Confessions" in th etitle, Mr De Quincey does not seem repentant or remorseful regarding his use of opium. In fact, Mr De Quincey believed that the use of opium released the "majestic intellect" of a person's mind, similiar to Dr Timothy Leary's view on LSD.

Those of you who are interested in pharmacology or drug addiction would be well served by reading this book. Mr De Quincey felt that his opium eating was actually beneficial to him and judging by his articulate arguments, one wonders is he could have been right.

Read it for yourself and see how this type of thing was handled in the nineteeth century.

I was very pleased with this publication. It's one of the most comprehensive books on an artist I have ever seen.

Maertz's essay, "Reviewing Kant's Early Reception in Britain," is typical of this book's excellent interdisciplinary revaluations, which cut across national and linguistic boundaries. Other outstanding contributions include Annette Wheeler Cafarelli's "Rousseau and British Romanticism" and David C. Hensley's "Richardson, Rousseau, and Kant." Maertz (St. John's Univ.) identifies Paul de Man's THE RHETORIC OF ROMANTICISM, THE AGE OF WORDSWORTH, ed. by Kenneth Johnston and Gene Ruoff, and ROMANTICISM IN NATIONAL CONTEXT, ed. by Roy Porter and Mikulás Teich, as signalling a reawakening of interest in transnational study of literature. He includes essays that build on recent developments in scholarship of the romantic era including deconstruction, cultural studies, feminism, the history of ideas, intertextuality, and literary history. Study of comparative literature is certainly the best method to understand complex cultural phenomena like Romanticism. Although many departments of literature defend national boundaries, typically English and American, Maertz's book demonstrates that rich rewards await those willing to examine European cultural contexts. Literary theory has taken center stage in cultural studies, but the fact remains that mastering "foreign" languages and reading Romanticism through the eyes of French, German, and Spanish authors is far more responsive and historically accurate.

This is my first book in 'diet studies', a subject I didn't know existed, and this will be 'le texte' for me in this field. A curiously charming descant that could be read with "The McDonaldization of Society" by George Ritzer. I was surprised to learn that it was not Marie Antoinette, but Rousseau, who said, 'Let them eat cake" ("Qu'ils mange la brioche", Confessions, Chapter 6). The book is a mine of curious information. Although the hilarious print of James Gilray, _Germans Eating Sour Krout_ (sic) (1803) fairly well summarizes most aspects of the issues of the postmodern deconstruction of eating habits , the text upscales very well to Kantian issues of taste, esthetics, Hegel's 'consuming totality of the Concept', and the 'carnivorous virity of philosophy'. It is hard to summarize this book, but the portions are of reasonable bite size as snapshots of the Romantic period, "Let them eat Romanticism".

Moore captures the sense of Hardy's writing in historical literary context. He demonstrates, in detail, that Hardy's novels were ironic, satirical, and by and large critical responses to the major themes of Romantic and Victorian cultural postions. Moore argues, convincingly, that Hardy's main theme in Wessex was the fall of idealism into a history which was without Reaon, or "non-rational," as Hardy once named it. Hardy's major novels, more shows, replay the dark themes of Shelley's "Triumph of Time," in local contexts.
Moore's study is comprehensive, detailed, and well-argued. It is surprising that it is not more widely appreciated in the Hardy and Victorian studies communities, both of which are sorely in need of a few good arguments and fresh critical approaches.