The Romantic Period

1785-1830

France: The House of Bourbon

France: The House of BourbonBourbon 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 Restored1815-1824 Louis XVIII

England: The House of Hanover

ROMANTIC REVOLUTIONS

American Revolution1775-1783

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

Tom Paine1737-1809

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 Auguste Milliere, Thomas PaineNational Portrait Gallery, London

French Revolution and Napoleon1789-1815

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

Edmund Burke1729-97

Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher

1756: A Vindication of Natural Society: A View of the Miseries 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.

Joshua Reynolds, Edmund BurkeScottish National Portrait Gallery

Mary Wollstonecraft

1759-97

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

Eugene DelacroixLiberty Leading the People

1812: Napoleon in his study

1800: Napoleon at St. Bernard 1804: The coronation

Images of NapoleonByJacques LouisDavid

1797:The Young General

Jacques Louis David, 1805-07 The coronation of the Emperor Napoleon I

Napoleonic Wars1805-1815

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 glowAnd hears innocuous thunder roar below.

Erasmus Darwin

Astronomy and the Herschels

William Herschel, 1738-1832 Caroline Herschel, 1750-1848

Great 40 FootTelescope

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 anexecuted 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 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

1778-1829

CLASSICISM vs. ROMANTICISM

Neo-Classicism vs Romanticism

Greek/Roman influence Emphasis on Society Age of Reason

Rationality Philosophy Deism

Euro-centric Cities Enlightenment

Science

Medieval/Oriental influence Emphasis on Individual Age of Passion

Emotion Imagination Spirituality: Vitalism

Interest in the Exotic Nature: pastoral and wild Revolution

Social Justice

NATURENeo-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

LOVENeo-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 NetscherA Musical Evening

John Smibert, Dean George Berkeley and His Family

Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at Sunrise

William BlakeThe Enslavement of Experience

The Transcendance of Imagination

Neo-Classical

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: Cromwell1829: Marion de Lorme –

banned by the censors1830: Hernani –caused a riot at

Theatre Francais1832: The King Takes his

Amusement – banned by the censors -- Verdi’s Rigoletto

1833: Lucrece Borgia and Maria Tudor

1835: Angelo1838: Ruy Blas1843: Les Burgraves

Scene from Hernani painted by L. Ceosio

Poet, Novelist, Dramatist -- best known for his novels, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and Les Miserables (1862)

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)

Manfred on the JungfrauFord Madox Brown1842

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

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.

Uncle Tom’s Cabindramatizations

based on novel by Harriet Beecher

Stowe

Romantic Prose Genres

Literary criticism Autobiography The Novel

Historical novels Novels of manners Novels of sensibility Gothic novels

Literary Criticism 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

William Hazlitt

Charles Lamb

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 (1771-1832) 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 (1768-1848):

Atala (1801) and Rene (1802) The Brontës: Anne Brontë Agnes Grey (1847)

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847), Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)

Laurence Sterne bySir Joshua Reynolds

The BrontësCharlotte (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 Webportrait 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 (1789-97)

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

Shelley1797-1851

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

The Poet as Rock Star

Keats Coleridge

WordsworthByron

Shelley

The Poet as Rock Star

Leopardi Heine

PushkinNovalis

THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS

America in the early 19th Century

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.