Spain in British Romanticism: 1800-1840 (Nineteenth-Century Major Lives and Letters)
Diego Saglia & Ian Haywood (Editors)
Series: Nineteenth-Century Major Lives and Letters
Hardcover: 309 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ed. 2018 edition (January 25, 2018)
ISBN-13: 9783319644554

This collection of thirteen specially commissioned essays by international scholars takes a fresh look at the profound impact of the Peninsular War on Romantic British literature and culture. The expertly authored chapters explore the valorization of Spain by nineteenth-century poets such as Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, S.T. Coleridge, the Shelleys, and Felicia Hemans in contrast to the Enlightenment-era view of Spain as a backwards nation in decline. Topics discussed include the vision of Spain in Gothic fiction, Spanish experiences of exile as exemplified by the conflict between Valentin de Llanos and Joseph Blanco White, and British women writers' approach to peninsular fiction.

Spain in British Romanticism: 1800-1840 is essential reading for scholars and enthusiasts of Romantic literature and Spanish history.

Review

“Ian Haywood and Diego Saglia have brought together a strong group of established and younger scholars to explore the ‘invention’ of Spain in the romantic period. Taking up responses to Spain by canonical writers such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Southey and introducing us to less well known texts by figures such as Blanco White, Alexander Dallas, and ‘Mrs. Meeke,’ the scholars in this volume show us how British romanticism re-envisioned Spain and how Spain shaped the vision of British romanticism.” (Jeffrey N. Cox, Arts and Sciences Professor of Distinction, University of Colorado Boulder, USA)