Romanticism: An Anthology

by Duncan Wu (Editor)

The second edition of Romanticism: An Anthology is widely regarded as the most comprehensive collection available of poetry and prose by the British Romantics. This magnificent Anthology is now available as a package with David Miall and Duncan Wu's revolutionary Romanticism: The CD-ROM. Both works reflect recent developments in Romantic scholarship, particularly in the expansion of the literary canon. Alongside unabridged texts from canonical writers are works by women and writers in other genres, including political and philosophical writers, diarists, painters, broadside-balladeers, reviewers and letter-writers. Additions for the second edition of the Anthology include Wordsworth's The Ruined Cottage, The Pedlar, Michael, The Brothers, and extracts from The Five-Book Prelude, and the Fourteen-Book Prelude; Coleridge's This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison, Kubla Khan, The Pains of Sleep, Dejection: An Ode, The Eolian Harp, and Frost at Midnight; Byron's Stanzas to Augusta, Epistle to Augusta and Don Juan Canto II. Substantial editorial material includes an introduction exploring the phenomenon of romanticism; detailed annotations and author headnotes providing biographical details; lists of significant recent criticism and in many cases brief critical introductions. The unique, easy to use CD-ROM both incorporates the anthology (in its first edition, including Wordsworth's Prelude (1805) in its entirety) and provides substantial selections from over ninety other writers. Built-in hypertext links enable readers to experience the intertextuality of writing during this period and understand the cultural context in which the texts were created. The CD-ROM offers a huge range of resources including: More than 1200 high-quality graphics, including illustrations, prints and paintings; scenes from the English Lake District, the Alps, and the ruins of Rome and Pompeii; photographs of landscapes and detailed maps.

Chronologies.

A biographic dictionary of the key figures of the period.

A 'tours' feature, which enables teachers or students to build their own routes through the CD-ROM or to take preset introductory tours e.g. through 'slavery'. Romanticism: An Anthology with CD-ROM is the most exciting resource available for students and researchers discovering the Romantic Period.

Genres: Poetry, Romanticism, Classics, Anthologies, Fiction, Reference, Literature

1656 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Sean Barrs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been diligently working my way through this massive tome of writing since the start of September. And it has been so much fun. One day I hope to lecture on the Romantics at a university. It would be glorious, me spieling out my thoughts on the poetry and prose of my favourite literary era. I don’t think I’d ever consider it work.

The Romantic writers were such an optimistic bunch; they really wanted to change the world. They directly addressed the constructs of society along with arguing for new connections with nature and emphasising the power of the human imagination. As a group, as a literary movement, they portrayed so much genius. Never before has one century produced so many fantastic writers and thinkers. The poets were more than mere artisans; they were philosophers and historians. And the novelists, they were a witty bunch too.

Not all fitted the mould. Byron was his own man, determined on forming his own distinct legend. Jane Austen attacked the nuances of cultural etiquette through the barebones on of her romance plots. Each writer had their own unique form of romanticism. Percy Shelley’s branch was so far removed from that of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s: he wanted a vegetarian utopia. Keats did something else entirely and Blake, Blake was a mad genius. If you put all these writers in the same room, they’d likely spend the day arguing about politics, philosophy and the nature of the poet’s role in society. I think it would be fun to watch.

They wouldn’t get on; yet, we link them in this loosely defined movement of Romanticism. It’s an interesting idea, one that downplays the role of women writers (booo!) in this era that was dominated by male poets and the ideas they presented. I love studying their work, and I love trying to find writers that did not quite fit the standard model or present it in a different way. Most of them wrote in long drawn out blank verse, and it can become repetitive at time, though the real masters of the craft placed words in such a way that the writing flowed taking you away into a mirage of ideas, thoughts and patterns.

For now though, I’m going to be moving away from such writings. My reviews over the next year or so will be focusing on global literature, magical realism and postcolonial modernist writing. I’m in the process of building an academic profile, and I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket so to speak. Even if it is a very good basket.

[Kate♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5stars

read a ton of these poems for class - liked some, didn't like others

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Per chi è interessato al romanticismo e vuole approfondirlo, o inoltrarvisi, questa antologia è perfetta. Contiene di tutto, dai grandi classici ad autori meno noti, con una ricchissima selezione e corredato di pratiche note. Personalmente avrei preferito che oltre alla saggistica e alla poesia fosse stato riservato spazio anche ai romanzi romantici (almeno qualche brano di Frankenstein sarebbe stato doveroso), ma tutto sommato è una raccolta estremamente ben realizzata. Essendo un libro di 1500 pagine in inglese ottocentesco e scritto in piccolo non è proprio una lettura agile, ma ne vale assolutamente la pena.

[Beatrix]

My favorite part was how sometimes there would be a weird word in the text and Duncan Wu would put a footnote and just be like “‘weird word’ as in [sentence using the word the same way it’s used in the text and not helping to define it at all]” or when he’d just not put notes about very important thing. Also how ridiculously heavy it is !!!

The Mary Robinson, Coleridge, Charlotte Smith, and Keats parts are like 5/5 for being good or at least entertaining. The Wordsworth parts are largely not as good and earn like a 3/5 because I do like “Tintern Abbey” and “Goody Blake and Harry Gill.” There’s other authors’ works but I don’t feel like giving opinions on them right now. Maybe later

[Leilani Tañeza]

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

I didn’t expect to love Romantic poetry and its cast of sentimental poets, but it was highly worth bringing back this textbook all the way home.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of Romantic texts, really enjoyed studying some of them at uni 🥰 Only knocking down a star as it broke my back every week carrying it around 😂😂

[Eshaah]

excellent background to the poets which provides context to understand their works better

[Kristin Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read parts of a different version for romantic lit. Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Clare etc

[Abi Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working my way through for uni.

[Benevbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for uni - lots of interesting poems in here, and discussions sprouted from that.

[Jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is on my reading list for one of my modules (Monstrous Bodies, which looks at the depiction of 'monsters' and medical discourse in 19th century literature), so this review is slightly less personal than many of my others.
Truth be told, I am not a fan of 19th century poetry. I find it to be overtly descriptive with not enough substance. However, the poetry in this anthology has enabled me to change my mind, especially on Wordsworth's works. I have particularly come to enjoy 'The Thorn', as it manages to combine poetic discourse and social commentary with ease.

My disappointments with this book are twofold. One, I would rather read a book with equal distribution of poems - there was an over-abundance of Wordsworth, for example. Secondly, I think the introductions for each author/poet are too focused on their history rather than their influences.

Lastly, I still dislike Hannah More's work. I do not think she had much influence in the progression of women in society, as her ideals still are constrained to the social norm. That, and I like stanzas (yes, I'm looking at you, Sensibility).

[Helena · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually a uni textbook but it's still good reading anyway. Pictures, biographies, notes, this book has it all! There are two major problems though: firstly, this book is MASSIVE and secondly, although you get pretty much every Romantic poet in existance, you don't get all their works nor full pieces of poetry.

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't learn very much from this book at all. It was too big. It hit me like a punch, and left me reeling. A useful rescource, but over-stuffed. And the biographies only tell one what one could have found out for oneself. A student's book, basically. Useful, but uninspire-ing.

[Alexis]

Romanticism: An Anthology (Blackwell Anthologies) (2005)

[Susan Dickson]

Yes, an excellent anthology, but too huge for lazy sunday reading

[sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read all of it-- I'm not sure I ever will at one time. But I liked most of what we read in/for class!

[Daisy Leather · Rating 5 out of 5]

obviously i only read a selection, not the entire thing, for university.
Coleridge, Barbauld, Wordsworth, Blake, Byron, Shelley, Smith, Keats, Austen and Clare.

[Kirsty Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loving Wordsworth but what a size of a book to carry back and forward to uni. It has everything you need for the course and some really really long poems.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

A necessity for my course. Not a casual read.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh. Textbook..

[ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

el peor curso de la erasmus con las peores lecturas pero bueno
*no entero

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent anthology of the era's writing