Lord Byron's Strength: Romantic Writing and Commercial SocietyAccording to Jerome Christensen, literary histories of British Romanticism have dealt inadequately with Byron's "lordship" - his singularity as a phenomenal literary success and as the last and greatest aristocratic poet in the language. At first, Byron does not want a poetic career. Then, entrapped by his extraordinary success, he gets one. And once Byron has a career, he ruins it - not by his unsavory sexual practices and political grandstanding but by publishing his greatest poem. The first extended study of the career and persona of the most celebrated poet of the nineteenth century, Lord Byron's Strength draws on contemporary literary, political, and social theory not only to revise our understanding of Byron but also to reexamine the romanticism of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Scott, Hazlitt, and Shelley. Christensen argues that the literary system that became "Byronism" was a complicated contrivance engineered by the poet - in collaboration with his publisher, friends, reviewers, and readers - for the greater glory of a United Kingdom triumphant in the war with Napoleon. Wellington may have won on the battlefield, but the real victory for Great Britain would depend on its ability to symbolize itself in a way that would overcome foreign resistance without force of arms - that would turn enemies into consumers. Christensen contends that Byron was the predominant vehicle for that strategy. British commercial society would benefit extravagantly from the international success of Childe Harold and the glamour and appeal of its author. But Byronism was a project that - in Don Juan, his greatest poem - Byron would reject. Lord Byron's Strength is an account of the packaging and sale of Byron, the poet's increasing resistance to the constraints of Byronism, and his eventual break with the commercial society that had made him its symbol. |
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Page 43
... follow in the line of his great - uncle ? As a reader looking for a model , Byron could , ironically , identify only with Mr. Chaworth . He could only imitate that man who sought to imitate his better , and thus fail as he had failed ...
... follow in the line of his great - uncle ? As a reader looking for a model , Byron could , ironically , identify only with Mr. Chaworth . He could only imitate that man who sought to imitate his better , and thus fail as he had failed ...
Page 66
... follow that path . But the poem's path is scarcely straightforward . It pauses to track the passage of William Beckford , who laid his " voluptuous lures ” in Portugal , and detours to follow the camps of the armies of France and ...
... follow that path . But the poem's path is scarcely straightforward . It pauses to track the passage of William Beckford , who laid his " voluptuous lures ” in Portugal , and detours to follow the camps of the armies of France and ...
Page 234
... follow you everywhere - she being the woman and la lettre , both of which are concentrated in the metaphor of the sunflower . If the seal is the material mark of fulfillment , the image of the sunflower is the sign that the seal , that ...
... follow you everywhere - she being the woman and la lettre , both of which are concentrated in the metaphor of the sunflower . If the seal is the material mark of fulfillment , the image of the sunflower is the sign that the seal , that ...
Contents
The Performance of Lordship | 3 |
An English Bard Scotch Reviewers | 32 |
Childe | 49 |
Copyright | |
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Lord Byron's Strength: Romantic Writing and Commercial Society Jerome Christensen Limited preview - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
appears aristocratic become Biographia Literaria blood body British Brougham called Cambridge canto career character Chaworth Childe Harold claim Coleridge commodity Corsair criticism cultural David Hume death degradation despot difference discourse Don Juan duel Edinburgh Review enlightenment equivocal essay ethical Faliero fascination father figure Francis Jeffrey Giaour Greek Gulnare Hazlitt hero Hobhouse Hume identifies imagined imperial J. G. A. Pocock Jean-François Lyotard Jeffrey John John Cam Hobhouse Juan's Julia Lady Byron Langley Moore language Lara letter liberal literary London Lord Byron Lyotard Marino Faliero mark Matthews's metaphor moral Murray Napoleon narrative narrator natural object Oriental parody Pedrillo perverse phrase poem poet poet's poetic poetry political economy Press publisher reader reading represents Review rhetorical Romantic Sardanapalus satire Scott sexual social society speculation stanza strength style Suwarrow thing tion trans truth Univ vols William woman words writing