30 Great Myths about the Romantics, by Duncan Wu
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30 Great Myths about the Romantics, by Duncan Wu
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This is a book for anyone with an interest in the British Romantics. It combines humor with a straightforward rendition of the facts surrounding their lives and works. For instance, did Wordsworth really have an affair with his sister? Was Keats really gay? Is it true that Byron died fighting for Greek freedom? Were they all drug-addicted geniuses? Through the learning of a world-class scholar, this book retraces the obscure path to the truth. Along the way, there are bizarre discoveries and eccentric factoids. The book opens with a picture of Byron wearing the helmet he designed himself, based on his reading of Homer. It also includes a photograph of Shelley's jawbone, taken in the Keats-Shelley House in Rome; a portrait of Byron's dog Lyon, indirectly responsible for his Lordship's premature death; and Guido Reni's painting of St Sebastian, which Oscar Wilde took to be a portrait of Keats.Duncan Wu writes in a style that is accessible, friendly, and up-to-date with the latest scholarly findings.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2137149 in Books
- Published on: 2015-05-06
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .60" w x 6.00" l, .95 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 336 pages
Review
“Wu is not a scholar who trades in faddish or modish opinion, and as its title implies, this is by its very nature an exercise in controversy and debate. The book represents a triumph of individual scholarship over what is claimed as often flawed, albeit consensual, critical opinion. Wu’s fluid, readable prose is accessible to all, and his extensive and subtle insights are a joy to read. This unique addition to the student bookshelf provides enjoyment and instruction simultaneously.” —Jane Moore, Cardiff University
From the Author First and foremost, I wanted to make a book that would entertain, amuse, and educate its readers about the world in which the Romantic writers lived and moved and had their being. It meant overturning many of my own assumptions about them, and starting from scratch, burrowing back through the reams of myths, many of which had been repeated over and over again, to reconstruct, as accurately as possible, what we actually know. The emphasis on the truth was salutary. I was forced to place a premium on first-hand testimony rather than on hearsay, and to insist that my witnesses speak from direct experience. What was shocking was the discovery that such standards are rarely, if ever, demanded by modern critics, and that in many cases I was the first person to regard with skepticism such oft-repeated lies as the idea that Byron and his half-sister had a child together or that Keats was a working-class ignoramus. I hope the result is, as I have hoped, an eye-opening (as much as an eye-watering) read, and that it encourages others to expect a high standard of accuracy from biographers, critics, and scholars.
From the Back Cover 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.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Remarkably fresh perspectives By Thomas Mann For those of us with an interest in the British Romantics this book is a real eye-opener. Duncan Wu clears out so much dead wood in the prevailing scholarship regarding Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hazlitt, Keats, and their contemporaries that his slim volume culls enough tinder for a bonfire. “The biggest myth of all might be that the Romantics invented Romanticism in 1798, practiced it until 1830, and then died,” he writes, and, “What we call Romantic might more accurately be called Regency Wartime Literature, were we to backdate the Regency, as some historians do, to 1788.” Commentators since the late 1800s have imposed so many filters on our perceptions of the early 1800s that it is very difficult for us now to see these writers as they saw themselves, in the very different context of their own time. The best-selling poets of those decades, for example, were not the above writers (save Byron); their roster included the little-remembered Samuel Rogers, Thomas Campbell, Thomas Moore, and Robert Pollack. Amelia Opie’s Poems and Charlotte Smith’s Beachy Head both outsold Lyrical Ballads. The widespread assumption today that “the Romantics” saw themselves in opposition to “the Augustans” in general (or Pope in particular) is belied by the complexity of beliefs voiced by Byron, Wordsworth, and Hazlitt themselves. Time after time Professor Wu finds that received “truths” about these writers are in fact half-truths, quarter-truths, dubiously-sourced assertions, out-of-context attributions, uncritical acceptances of self-serving posturings, later re-castings of motivations not present at the time, or outright fictions. The latter, Wu documents, are frequently generated in the present hot-house atmosphere of pop-psychoanalyzing on matters of suppression, transgression, and sexual orientation, exemplifying, in Wu’s elegant phrase, a “readiness to impose upon the evidence interpretive grids designed to illustrate pre-existing agendas.” I think Hazlitt, were he around today, would relish this book: it gives us a fresh perspective “untrammeled” by the “prejudices” so characteristic of the spirit of our own age.
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