Romanticism Books

Welp, it's another freaking academic book, but with a twist! Maybe this one won't be holding my office door open (Remember 'Naming the Rose'? I do. And what an essay AND a door stopper. And I was really wanting to know about the one about the mute girl and the deformed monk...but I keep hearing this Eco.)

For once, the old boy might actually make some money off a printing. And with the 10 bucks he's paying for this review, geez, we just cut DEEP into the profits. (That's what's important, bubba, the profits.) I was amazed to find that there were actually THREE used books available, BUT buy a NEW one because I think he does not get a cut unless a NEW one is bought.

I heard about this book, oh, at least a gazillion times until Cambridge published it. He goes to England and Scotland-it's 'research'. And what I get? A freaking box of tea bags.

It's kind like that joke about the Alabama grad, the Auburn grad, and the Florida grad caught drinking in Saudia Arabia. 20 lashes each, but the Sheik gives them 1 wish each. Florida asks for 1 pillow for his back, gets 20. Auburn guys asks for 2 pillows, gets 20. The Sheik give the Alabama guy an extra wish. What does he do? Asks for 100 lashes. Then asks for the Auburn guy to be strapped on his back.

Just give Mark the extra wish and buy the book. 100 lashes aren't so bad.

George S. Williamson has written a book of massive scope that fills in all of the gaps (and wounds) left open by hundreds of other, lesser books. That is because the author is a great scholar and has the patience necessary to complete such a task. I wish I had owned it when I was an undergrad trying to understand the context of German history in which myth emerged as a central concern in Romanticism. I did not have this history available in one single book and had to run all over the libraries copying endlessly from scholarly journals and buying expensive rare books in German. This book fills that need while being a delightful and instructive guide.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of German thought, but also to students of philosophy, opera, religion, and literature. Williamson studied under Frank M. Turner, a Rhodes Scholar and author of The Greek Heritage in Victorian Britain (Yale UP, 1981). You can expect that kind of high quality here as well, you'll definitely find it. If you enjoyed Suzanne Marchand's Down From Olympus (Princeton UP, 1996), then The Longing for Myth in Germany will compliment it perfectly. I was delighted to see such a thorough treatment of the controversy stirred over Creuzer's Symbolik, and here, as well, one will find an excellent and quotable discussion of Karl Otfried Mueller (finally). It is such a delight to read scholarly work like this, with an objective approach to topics so bantered around and carelessly treated today.

The basic assumption of academia and religious leaders from recorded antiquity down to the present day is that language forms the foundation of human thought and societal interaction, and is what fundamentally distinguishes homo sapiens from the other species. The Lure Of The Linguistic: Speculations On The Origin Of Language In German Romanticism by academician and translator Shelley Frisch is a seminal and ground breaking study focusing an impressive scholarship addressing how Romantic speculations on the origin of language blended eighteenth-century European mystical and Enlightenment musings about language to produce lyrical and compelling depictions of its origins and development. The first work of substantive scholarship to bring together divers strands of mystical and Enlightenment speculations on language, The Lure Of The Linguistic descriptive showcases the unique manner in which eighteenth-century thought has shaped our modern twenty-first century understanding of language. No academic library's Linguistic Studies collection can be considered either comprehensive or complete without the inclusion of Shelley Frisch The Lure Of The Linguistic!

I purchased this book as a rememberance of a trip to the National Gallery in London. I was not the least bit disappointed. Works of Gainsborough, Turner, Stubbs, Constable, Cox, Whistler, Kokoschky are all included--over 150 color paintings all significant works. Is it tacky to say it also functions as a beautiful coffee table book? :o)

At any rate, it is a wonderful addition to any collection.

THIS IS A CLASSIC AND NO ONE SEES ROUSSEAU MORE CLEARLY THAN IRVING BABBITT.

Moby-Dick and Peace sheds new light on Melville's Romanticism through the context of the China trade and China-related travel and texts. Dr. Ferrantello writes original interpretations of symbolism such as the masthead, "meditations and water", "circumambulation of the city," the ocean, the "universal yellow lotus", the symphony of sea and sky and the whale and of Melville's biblical, Jobian conclusions. The imaginative association of nineteenth-century visionary illustrations by Elihu Vedder and contemporary realist paintings by Joseph Raffael enhance this new presentation.
As a groundbreaking study, this book is very readable for both the scholar and the intelligent layperson who want to understand Moby-Dick. The interdisciplinary knowledge structured into six chapters can provide a companion volume for students and teachers studying Melville's text.

Recommended:

"Arguing against critics who claim Melville as wholly pessimistic and even anti-religious, in this important new book on Moby-Dick and its sources, Ferrantello persuasively makes a case for Melville as an American Universalist. Drawing on sources as diverse as the French translations used by Thoreau and other Transcendentalists, the monumental work on Asian religions by Samuel Johnson, and the works of European Orientalists, Ferrantello meticulously documents the many influences on and parallels to Melville's fluid religious Universalism. Moby-Dick and Peace is a book that subsequent critics will have to reckon with." -Arthur 1. Versluis,
author of American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions

About the author:

Dr. D. J. Ferrantello earned a doctorate in American Literature, Culture, and Religion and a master's of philosophy in Nineteenth Century Thought from Drew University. Additional study included master's coursework in English and American Literature at Boston University, master's coursework in church history, biblical studies and comparative religions and a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Literature from the University of Connecticut. Having lived overseas, Dr. Ferrantello has taught graduate courses at Moscow State University and high school English while living in Africa, as well as having journeyed to the Far East four times, making the study of Asian language and culture a lifelong goal.

"Neoclassicism and Romanticism" is an impressive survey of a broad period and group of styles in architecture and art. I highly recommend it as a valuable addition to anyone's art library. The illustrations are all in color and are of high quality.

Within this book are the best quotes from Novalis in the original German, and translated into English. The poet's perspectives on chance and non-linear reality are clearly articulated. As Novalis was studying what was essentially modern science, his groundedness in German mysticism is even more startling. Only Jacob Boehme takes the imagination further. However, the choice of quotes and the explications of their mysteries, in this volume, are very insightful. I've owned the book twice (gave it away once!).

I read this wonderful book in my early years of college and it influenced my choice of major and my thesis topic (On Thomas De Quincey and the benefits of opium to his work ). Essentially a series of brief biographies outlining several famous authors from the 16th the the 19th century, and how their addictions affected their lives,relationships and creative art.
The best section is on Thomas de Quincey (Author of "Confessions of an English Opium Eater"), who had a successful career as a freelance writer while deeply addicted. He is compared and contrasted with S.T Coleridge, who became a famous poet before aquiring his habit, which then led to his writing a handful of great opium influenced poems ("Dejection: An Ode", "Christabel" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which is rife with addictive imagery) before becoming almost totally incapacitated except as a speaker. Hayter claims ,quite convincingly ,a controversial theory that Coleridge used a very strong brand of Laudenum (called "Black Drop")which was heated with ascetic acid, converting it directly into the much more addictive compound heroin!) I disagree strongly with some of Hayter's conclusions, but they are all well-documented and sensible. The best book on creativity and drug use before the rise of the drug culture in the late 20th century.

This Oxford Companion is one of the most engrossing of all reference works. The book is divided into two hefty sections. The first contains 41 substantial essays on general themes of the era, such as "Revolution," "Industrialization," and "Empire." The essays are written by leading scholars including Jerome McGann, and each essay is concluded with a brief bibliography, which is a great aid to research. Moreover, the essays are fully indexed. This in itself would be a great read, but it's only half the book. The second section of the Companion is a 375-page encyclopedia containing short articles on a whole range of significant contributors to European romanticism, as well as longer articles on the period's various genres, movements, events, and minor themes. What's more, the two sections of the book are fully cross-referenced, and the book is well illustrated throughout. This Companion should be on the "Recommended Reading" list for every undergraduate Romantic-era history or literature course. Not only that, it should be read, as well! A challenging, often provocative, always insightful survey of the great sweep of British culture in the Romantic age.