Ilse’s Reviews > Romanticism and Its Discontents > Status Update
Ilse
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At one stage Romantic meant anything capable of being described in a novel ’dans un roman’. Even within the limits of this definition, one is legitimately aware of the fact that the Romantic Movement in France leans towards forms of literature: predominantly pastoral or pantheistic in England, predominantly revivalist and nationalist in Germany, Romanticism is consistently literary or theatrical in France.
— May 30, 2026 05:40AM
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Ilse’s Previous Updates
Ilse
is on page 78 of 198
Baudelaire is a new type of critic, one almost entirely dependent on his own reactions, his moi. He believes that his reactions to paintings or music or literature are as valid as the things themselves. He is, in every context, an artist in his own right. Criticism, as practised by Baudelaire, is an autonomous discipline.
— Jun 24, 2026 02:16PM
Ilse
is on page 58 of 198
Romanticism succeeded in literature for far longer than it did in painting. Literary Romanticism is capable of many mutations because it does not rely on standard imagery. For Baudelaire,Romanticism represented the kingship of the imagination, as it did for Delacroix. The final phase of the Baudelairian attitude implies that the cult of images signifies consolation, compensation for the ills of contemporary life.
— Jun 19, 2026 04:14AM
Ilse
is on page 20 of 198
Napoleon is the presiding genius of mature Romanticism. Even the later phase, represented by Musset and Vigny in literature, by Delacroix in painting, will be steeped in nostalgia for an heroic way of life.
— Jun 17, 2026 12:08PM
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Jonfaith
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May 30, 2026 06:56AM
I had thought of reading H Bloom on the Romantics but that will have to wait.
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Jonfaith wrote: "I had thought of reading H Bloom on the Romantics but that will have to wait."Jon, which book of Bloom are you eyeing (Romanticism and Consciousness?) - Since a long time, I have Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron and Other Tangled Lives waiting here to be read, but because I am a little more familiar with the French, I started with this one instead...
Indeed, it is R&C. I have a handy mass market copy. Very portable. Alas I am going to continue with Nabakov for a while, if not the month, then perhaps Bloom, Byron and Keats.
Jonfaith wrote: "Indeed, it is R&C. I have a handy mass market copy. Very portable. Alas I am going to continue with Nabakov for a while, if not the month, then perhaps Bloom, Byron and Keats."With Nabokov one can easily fill a whole reading year :). Noticing you are reading Boyd's biography, you remind me of a long-standing intention to re-read Nabokov chronologically, simultaneously with the two Boyds (can you imagine, I bought them in 1998 in the Strand when visiting New York with friends and colleagues and I still haven't read them yet: -(
My plan was similar to what you envisioned though not necessarily chronologically sequential. I did want to read the remaining books I hadn't finished and also reread Lolita (the annotated) and Pale Fire. I plan during the trip to Bruce Peninsula on taking two secondary approaches (a different one from Boyd) as well as a historical treatment of VN as well as Ada which I have never managed more than a few chapters.
Quite true, Ilse: Romanticism is unimaginable outside XIX nationalism, including its North American variety, as in Fennimore Cooper.