Reflections of Revolution

The essays in this volume provide a varied commentary on British cultural reaction to the French Revolution. The book does not provide an all-embracing account of the relationship between political events and cultural expression, rather the individual essays demonstrate the complex determination of literary and artistic practice. The meanings of the Revolution in France were not carried over in any unmeditated way, but articulated by the concerns of British Romanticism. Similarly, this collection highlights the ways in which present-day interpretations of Romantic culture are "contaminated' by late 20th-century preoccupations. Viewing the past, we become acutely aware of the present. "Reflections on Revolution" provides a body of scholarly and critical work on the art, literature and cultural history of the Romantic period in Britain and France. It is an interdisciplinary study which unites ideas and subject areas which have been little understood and aims to challenge traditional approaches to both art and literature.