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 163
... mind to become a living engine . If the Webster - machine were to give a defense of itself ( perhaps in a Foucauldian dream vision ) , it might sound like the story told by James Tilly Matthews of Bethlem Hospital , London , which was ...
... mind to become a living engine . If the Webster - machine were to give a defense of itself ( perhaps in a Foucauldian dream vision ) , it might sound like the story told by James Tilly Matthews of Bethlem Hospital , London , which was ...
Page 182
... mind from the minds of others : its convulsiveness and the absolute reflexive symmetry of its world - view are complementary symp- toms that clinch the diagnosis . This madness is not something that Mat- thews could be putting on . Yet ...
... mind from the minds of others : its convulsiveness and the absolute reflexive symmetry of its world - view are complementary symp- toms that clinch the diagnosis . This madness is not something that Mat- thews could be putting on . Yet ...
Page 187
... mind with nature " ( BLJ 5:99 ) . The enabling discovery of Childe Harold IV is that commerce makes itself a second nature by creating vacuums that it can then naturally fill . The way Byron's mind works is the way British commercial ...
... mind with nature " ( BLJ 5:99 ) . The enabling discovery of Childe Harold IV is that commerce makes itself a second nature by creating vacuums that it can then naturally fill . The way Byron's mind works is the way British commercial ...
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