Revolutions in Romantic Literature

This concise Broadview anthology of primary source materials is unique in its focus on Romantic literature and the ways in which the period itself was characterised by wide-ranging, self-conscious debates about the meaning of literature. It includes materials that are not available in other Romantic literature anthologies. The anthology is organised into thirteen sections that highlight the intensity and sophistication with which a variety of related literary issues were debated in the Romantic period. These debates posed fundamental questions about the very nature of literature as a cultural phenomenon, the extent and role of the reading public, literature's relation to the sciences and the aesthetic, the influence of contemporary commercial pressures, and the impact of perceived excesses in consumer fashions.