Brimming with the fascinating eccentricities of a complex and
confusing movement whose influences continue to resonate deeply,
30 Great Myths About the Romantics adds great clarity to
what we know - or think we know - about one of
the most important periods in literary history.
* Explores the various misconceptions commonly associated with
Romanticism, offering provocative insights that correct and clarify
several of the commonly-held myths about the key figures of this
era
* Corrects some of the biases and beliefs about the Romantics
that have crept into the 21st-century zeitgeist - for example
that they were a bunch of drug-addled atheists who believed in free
love; that Blake was a madman; and that Wordsworth slept with his
sister
* Celebrates several of the mythic objects, characters, and ideas
that have passed down from the Romantics into contemporary culture
- from Blake's Jerusalem and Keats's
Ode on a Grecian Urn to the literary genre of the
vampire
* Engagingly written to provide readers with a fun yet scholarly
introduction to Romanticism and key writers of the period, applying
the most up-to-date scholarship to the series of myths that
continue to shape our appreciation of their work
