The Romantic
Period
1785-1830
France: The House of
Bourbon
France: The House of Bourbon
Bourbon Dynasty
1643 - 1715 Louis XIV (the Sun King)
1715 - 1774 Louis XV (the Beloved)
1774 - 1792 Louis XVI
First Republic 1792-1804 [Louis XVII]
Bonaparte Dynasty First Empire
1804-1815 Napoleon
Bourbon Dynasty Restored
1815-1824 Louis XVIII
England: The House of Hanover
ROMANTIC
REVOLUTIONS
American Revolution
1775-1783
 1763: Britain began to impose taxes upon the colonies which were
viewed as illegal
 Broad intellectual and social shifts
 republican ideals: liberty and rights as central values, makes the
people as a whole sovereign, rejects aristocracy and inherited
political power, expects citizens to be independent and calls on them
to perform civic duties, and is strongly opposed to corruption.
 liberal democracy: representative democracy (with free and fair
elections) along with the protection of minorities, the rule of law, a
separation of powers, and protection of liberties (thus the name
liberal) of speech, assembly, religion, and property.
 Colonies’ alliance with France
 1776: Declaration of Independence
 1787: Constitution and Bill of Rights
 Quaker
 Met Ben Franklin in London –
who advised him to move to
America
 1776: Common Sense: attacked
British monarchy and argued for
American independence
 1787: Returned to Britain
 1791: The Rights of Man: proposed
universal male suffrage,
progressive taxes, family
allowances, old age pensions,
maternity grants and abolition of
House of Lords
 1792: Became a French citizen and
elected to National Convention –
opposed execution of Louis XVI
 1794: Age of Reason: questioned
truth of Old Testament and
Christianity
 1802: returned to America
Tom Paine
1737-1809
Auguste Milliere, Thomas Paine
National Portrait Gallery, London
French Revolution and Napoleon
1789-1815
 1789: Fall of Bastille and Declaration of the Rights of Man
 1792: September Massacres of imprisoned nobility
 1793: The Reign of Terror
 Execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
 France declared war against Britain
 1794: Fall of Robespierre
 1804: Napoleon crowned Emperor of France
 1815: Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo
Jean-Pierre Louis Laurent Houel (1735-1813),
Prise de la Bastille ("The storm of the Bastille").
Official British Reaction to the
French Revolution
 Curtailment of civil liberties and harsh
repression
 suspension of the writ of habeus corpus
 advocates of political change charged with
treason
 1791: Rejection of a bill to abolish the slave
trade
 1793: declaration of war against France
Anglo-Irish statesman and
Edmund Burke  philosopher
 1756: A Vindication of Natural
1729-97
Society: A View of the Miseries
Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
and Evils Arising to Mankind:
treatise on anarchy
 1757: A Philosophical Enquiry
into the Origin of Our Ideas of the
Sublime and Beautiful: treatise
on aesthetics
 1765-94: Whig member of
House of Commons
 Opposed absolute monarchy
and supported American
colonies against the king
 1790: Reflections on the
Revolution in France: saw
French Revolution as a violent
rebellion against tradition which
would end in disaster.
 Professional writer,
philosopher and feminist
 1790: Vindication of the Rights
of Men: response to Burke in
defense of the ideals of the
French Revolution
 1792: A Vindication of the
Rights of Women
 1794: An Historical and Moral
View of the French Revolution
 1796: Letters Written During a
Short Residence in Sweden,
Norway, and Denmark
 1797: married William
Godwin
 Died of childbirth fever
 1798: William Godwin
published Memoirs of the
Author of a Vindication of the
Rights of Woman
Mary
Wollstonecraft
1759-97
Eugene Delacroix
Liberty Leading the People
1797:The
Young
General
1800: Napoleon at St. Bernard
1812: Napoleon in his study
Images of
Napoleon
By
Jacques
Louis
David
1804: The coronation
Jacques Louis David, 1805-07
The coronation of the Emperor Napoleon I
Napoleonic Wars
1805-1815
William Sadler, The Battle of Waterloo
Industrial Revolution
 Power-driven machinery replaced hand
labor
 1765: James Watt – the steam engine
 Industry moved from homes and workshops
to factories
 Population moved from agricultural
countryside to industrial cities
 Enclosure of “commons” into privately
owned estates
 Laissez faire economic policy – free
operation of economic laws –governmental
non-interference
1776: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Scientific Advances:
An Age of Wonder
 The possibility of flight: hot air balloons
 Astronomical discoveries
 Electricity
 Chemistry
 Emphasis on experimentation and applied
science
 Public interest ignited by demonstrations
and lectures
Montgolfier Hot Air
Balloon
 November 21, 1783 – first
manned flight in a balloon
designed by the Montgolfier
brothers
 Paris, above the Seine
 70 feet high powered by a 6
foot brazier with burning
straw
 Aeronauts – Pilatre de
Rozier and Marquis
d’Arlandes
Charlière
Hydrogen
Balloon
 1768 -- Discovery of hydrogen by
Henry Cavendish and Joseph
Priestly, named hydrogen by
Antoine Lavoisier
 December 1, 1783 – first manned
flight in a hydrogen balloon
launched by Jacques Alexandre
Charles
 wickerwork basket for
passengers
 impermeable balloon made of
silk coated with rubber
 controllable gas valve
 ballast bags that could be
jettisoned by the aeronaut
Interest in Meteorology
 1804 -- Guy-Lussac ascended
23,000 feet above Paris –
establishing the limits for
human to breathe
 1804 – Luke Howard
published On the Modification
of Clouds classifying 4 basic
cloud types: cumulus, stratus,
cirrus, and nimbus
 Fascination with clouds both
scientifically and aesthetically
 First mapping overview of the
earth – earth as a giant
organism
 The calm Philosopher in ether
sails,
Views broader stars and breathes in
purer gales;
Sees like a map in many a waving
line,
Round earth’s blue plains her lucid
waters shine;
Sees at his feet the forky lightning
glow
And hears innocuous thunder roar
below.
Erasmus Darwin
Astronomy and the
Herschels
Great 40 Foot
Telescope
William Herschel, 1738-1832
Caroline Herschel, 1750-1848
Astronomy and the Herschels
 William Herschel: composer and musician turned
astronomer and telescope builder
 1781: discovered the planet later named Uranus
 1782: appointed “the King’s Astronomer”
 1785-89: built Great 40 Foot Telescope
 Deep sky surveys: Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters
of Stars (1786),Catalogue of a Second Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters
of Stars (1789, Catalogue of 500 new Nebulae, nebulous Stars, planetary
Nebulae, and Clusters of Stars (1802)
 Determined that the solar system is moving through space
 Caroline Herschel: singer turned astronomer and comet-hunter
 Discovered 8 comets
 1798: Catalogue of Stars published by Royal Society
 1828: Awarded the Gold Medal by Royal Astronomical Society for work
with nebulae
Electricity and Galvanism
 1771: Luigi Galvani discovered that
electricity causes twitching of frog’s legs:
“animal electricity”
 1800: Allesandro Volta invented the
voltaic pile, the first electrochemical battery.
 1803: Giovanni Aldini demonstrated
electro-stimulation of deceased limbs on an
executed criminal at Newgate Prison in London
 “On the first application of the process to the face, the jaws of
the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles
were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened.
In the subsequent part of the process the right hand was raised and
clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion.”
Dissections, Body Snatchers,
Reanimations and Frankenstein
Chemistry and Sir Humphrey Davy
 1799: ‘Researches, Chemical and
1778-1829
Philosophical, chiefly concerning
Nitrous Oxide and its Respiration
 1801: Became assistant lecturer in
chemistry, director of the chemical
laboratory, and assistant editor of the
journals of the Royal Society: popular
public lectures on galvanism and
chemistry.
 Pioneered electrolysis to isolate
elements: discovered sodium,
potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron,
and barium.
 The Davy Lamp: safety lamp for coal
miners
CLASSICISM vs.
ROMANTICISM
Neo-Classicism vs
 Greek/Roman influence
 Emphasis on Society
 Age of Reason
Rationality
Philosophy
Deism
 Euro-centric
 Cities
 Enlightenment
Science
Romanticism
 Medieval/Oriental influence
 Emphasis on Individual
 Age of Passion
Emotion
Imagination
Spirituality: Vitalism
 Interest in the Exotic
 Nature: pastoral and wild
 Revolution
Social Justice
NATURE
Neo-Classical
Romantic
Universal
Subject to human control
Gardens
Source of peace and
tranquillity
Untamed nature:
dangerous/evil
Particular
Beyond human control
Mountains, oceans,
forests
Source of inspiration
and spirituality
Untamed nature:
exhilarating/sublime
Gainsborough, St James Park
Friedrich, Solitary Tree
LOVE
Neo-Classical
Romantic
Universal
Subject to human control
Marriage
Social Contract
Economic Contract
Attraction between
social and intellectual
equals
Source of peace and
tranquillity
Particular
Beyond human control
Passion
Individual choice
Search for soul-mate
Forbidden
attractions: social,
exotic, incestual
Source of inspiration,
exhilaration and despair
Gaspar Netscher
A Musical Evening
John Smibert, Dean George Berkeley and His Family
Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at Sunrise
William Blake
The Enslavement of Experience
The Transcendance of Imagination
NeoClassical
Artist
Social
Arbiter of Taste
Elitist
Moral
Intellectual
Critic
Louis Michel van Loo Portrait of Diderot
Romantic
Artist
Loner
Unconventional
Amoral
Genius
Prophet
George Gordon Lord Byron
Romantic Drama
Influences
 17th c. French Neo-Classical and English
Restoration drama of wit and manners became
18th theatre of sensibility
 18th –19th c. German Romantic Theatre
 Revival of Shakespeare
 Rise of “star system”: actor-managers
 Technical advances in staging and lighting
German Romantic
Theater
 “Stürm und Drang”
 Looked to Shakespeare for
models
 Sweeping historical and
tragic dramas
 Began to emphasize
historical accuracy in
costumes and settings
 Improved theatrical effects -footlights, revolving stages,
theatrical machinery
Schiller and Goethe
French Romantic Drama
 Revolt against Neo-Classicism fueled by French
Revolution
 Action – Passion– Human Nature
 Alexander Dumas, pere, 1802-1870
 Henri III et sa cour (Henry III and His Court, 1829)
 For Antony (1831)
 La Tour de Nesle (1832)
 Novelist: Three Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo
 Alfred de Vigny, 1797-1863
 1820s: Alexandrine verse adaptations of Romeo
and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice and Othello
 La Marechale d’Ancre (1831)
 Quitte pour la Peur (1833
 Chatterton (1835)
Victor Hugo, 1802-85
1827: Cromwell
1829: Marion de Lorme –
banned by the censors
1830: Hernani –caused a
riot at Theatre Francais
1832: The King Takes his
Amusement – banned by
the censors -- Verdi’s
Rigoletto
1833: Lucrece Borgia and
Maria Tudor
1835: Angelo
1838: Ruy Blas
1843: Les Burgraves
Poet, Novelist, Dramatist -- best known
for his novels, The Hunchback of Notre
Dame (1831) and Les Miserables (1862)
Scene from Hernani painted by L. Ceosio
Manfred on the Jungfrau
Ford Madox Brown
1842
English
Closet
Drama
 Closet drama: drama meant more to be read than performed
 Prominent in the early 19th c. when melodrama and burlesque
dominated the theater, and poets attempted to raise dramatic
standards:
 Joanna Baillie: Plays on the Passions, 1798-1812
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Remorse, 1813
 George Gordon Lord Byron: Manfred, 1817
 Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Cenci and Prometheus Unbound,
1819
 Robert Browning’s Strafford (1837) and Pippa Passes (1841)
Melodrama
 Comes from "music drama" –
music was used to increase
emotions or to signify
characters (signature music).
 Theatre of sentimentality -emotional appeal
 Simplified moral universe:
good and evil embodied in
stock characters
Heroes and villains -- and
lily-pure heroines
 Sensationalistic: fires,
explosions, drownings, etc.
 Wide popular appeal
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
dramatizations
based on novel by
Harriet Beecher
Stowe
 George L. Aiken’s was the most popular--1853. Six acts, done
without an afterpiece – established the single-play format. 325
performances in New York.
 In the 1870’s, at least 50 companies doing it in the U.S.
 In 1899: 500 companies.
 In 1927: 12 still doing it.
 12 movie versions since 1900.
 The most popular melodrama in the world until the First
World War.
Romantic Prose Genres
 Literary criticism
 Autobiography
 The Novel
 Historical novels
 Novels of manners
 Novels of sensibility
 Gothic novels
Literary Criticism
William Hazlitt
Charles Lamb
 Literary critics became
the arbiters of taste
 Debate over the artistic
value as well as the
utilitarian value of
critical literature
 1802: Edinburgh
Review
 1809: Quarterly
Review
Thomas DeQuincy
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Autobiography
The term was first used by the poet Robert Southey
in 1809 in the English periodical Quarterly Review
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions
(1781-88)
 Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere Journals
(1799+)
Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an Opium
Eater, 1822
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, (1845)
Historical
Novels
 Novels that reconstruct a
past age, often when two
cultures are in conflict
 Fictional characters interact
with with historical figures
in actual events
 Sir Walter Scott (17711832) is considered the
father of the historical
novel: The Waverly Novels
(1814-1819) and Ivanhoe
(1819)
Jane Austen and
the Novel of Manners
 Novels dominated by the customs,
manners, conventional behavior and
habits of a particular social class
 Often concerned with courtship
and marriage
 Realistic and sometimes satiric
 Focus on domestic society rather
than the larger world
 Other novelists of manners:
Anthony Trollope, Edith Wharton,
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Margaret
Drabble
Novels of Sentiment
 Novels in which the characters, and thus the
readers, have a heightened emotional
response to events
 Connected to emerging Romantic movement
 Laurence Sterne (1713-1768):
Tristam Shandy (1760-67)
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832):
The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774)
 Francois Rene de Chateaubriand (17681848): Atala (1801) and Rene (1802)
 The Brontës: Anne Brontë Agnes Grey
(1847) Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
(1847), Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)
Laurence Sterne by
Sir Joshua Reynolds
The Brontës
Charlotte (1816-55), Emily (1818-48), Anne (1820-49)
 Wuthering Heights and Jane
Eyre transcend sentiment into
myth-making
 Wuthering Heights plumbs
the psychic unconscious in a
search for wholeness, while
Jane Eyre narrates the female
quest for individuation
 Brontë.info: website of
Brontë Society and Haworth
Parsonage
 The Victorian Web
portrait by Branwell Brontë of his sisters,
Anne, Emily, and Charlotte (c. 1834)
Gothic Novels
 Novels characterized by magic,
mystery and horror
 Exotic settings – medieval,
Oriental, etc.
 Originated with Horace
Walpole’s Castle of Otranto
(1764)
 William Beckford: Vathek, An
Arabian Tale (1786)
 Anne Radcliffe: 5 novels (178997) including The Mysteries of
Udolpho
 Widely popular genre throughout
Europe and America: Charles
Brockden Brown’s Wieland
(1798)
 Contemporary Gothic novelists
include Anne Rice and Stephen
King
Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
1797-1851
 Inspired by a dream in reaction to a
challenge to write a ghost
story
 Published in
1817
(rev. ed. 1831)
 A Gothic novel
influenced by
Promethean myth
 The first science
fiction novel
Lyric Poetry
 Search for an authentic language of feeling rather than
artifice
 Wordsworth: “the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings recollected in tranquility”
 1st person voice of the poem – during this period usually
associated with the poet – sometimes biographical and
confessional
 Revived older poetic forms:
 blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
 the sonnet
 the ballad
 the ode
Keats
Coleridge
The Poet as
Rock Star
Shelley
Wordsworth
Byron
Leopardi
Heine
The Poet as
Rock Star
Pushkin
Novalis
America in the early 19th Century
THE
TRANSCENDENTALISTS
Transcendentalist
Movement
 Began September 8, 1836, when a group of prominent New
England intellectuals, led by poet-philosopher Ralph Waldo
Emerson, met at the Transcendental Club in Boston.
 A philosophical movement protesting the state of culture –
especially political parties and organized religion.
 Advocated individual self-reliance and independence –
humans are inherently good.
 Major figures in the movement were Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Margaret
Fuller and Amos Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May
Alcott).
 A reaction against 18th century Rationalism and New England
Puritanism, it was influenced by German Idealism (Immanuel
Kant) and Vedic (Indian) spiritualism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
Essayist, lecturer and
poet
Founder of
Transcendentalism –
expounded principles
in the essay,
“Nature,” 1836
Encouraged and
critically supported
Thoreau and
Whitman
Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862
 Poet, philosopher, naturalist,
abolitionist
 Best known for his books, Walden
and Civil Disobedience
 Although not highly regarded by his
contemporary critics, Thoreau has
had a profound effect on such
varied figures as Tolstoy, Ghandi,
John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther
King as well as a wide range of 20th
century authors.