Romanticism and Music Culture in Britain, 1770-1840: Virtue and Virtuosity

ISBN-13: 9780521117333 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 314 str.

Gillen D'Arcy Wood

Opis

Music was central to everyday life and expression in late Georgian Britain, and this is the first interdisciplinary study of its impact on Romantic literature. Focusing on the public fascination with virtuoso performance, Gillen D'Arcy Wood documents a struggle between sober literary' virtue and luxurious, effeminate virtuosity that staged deep anxieties over class, cosmopolitanism, machine technology, and the professionalization of culture. A remarkable synthesis of cultural history and literary criticism, this book opens new perspectives on key Romantic authors including Burney, Wordsworth, Austen and Byron and their relationship to definitive debates in late Georgian culture."

Recenzje

Review of the hardback: 'An elegantly sober manner and unflagging diligence underlie the book's many virtues. But to my mind the constant surprises and - it bears repeating - the brilliant execution make this a consummately virtuoso performance.' Marshall Brown, Review 19

Spis treści

Preface; Introduction. Virtuosophobia; 1. Seward's Handelomania; 2. The Burney baroque; 3. Wordsworth castrato; 4. Cockney Mozart; 5. Austen's accomplishment; 6. The Byron of the piano; Coda. The mechanical nightingale.