Introducing Romanticism (Introducing (Icon))

But romanticism has interested me. It's, what, unenlightened? So I got this little gem.

There's a surprising wealth of information in this book, enough that it has induced me to buy a few other philosophy books (something I said twenty years ago that I'd never do!) Lots of names, how the romanticists of various nationalities were motivated (I found the Germans particularly interesting, maybe because I've been someone interested in Schopenhauer and Kant over the years).

Don't be put off by the graphics. They are effective at adding more substance than a paragraph or two can cover. And they're simple but well done.

The bulk of the text covered European romanticism, so I wondered where's the American breed of that animal. The final portion of the book didn't let me down. It covered the likes of Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others, all of them characteristic American romanticists.

Most of us are "lay persons" with respect to philosophy as a discipline. This book will at least introduce us to the roots of romanticism, even to its critics. And, among the things I learned from it is that there is not a black and white break between romanticism and its compatriots. Some European romanticists, for example, were closer to postmodernist, according to the authors, and others claimed to be "Neoclassisist," apparently pre-evolved romanticists. So where one ends and the other begins isn't as clear as, frankly, I wish it were (so I could define them all more clearly!

It's such a good read that I bought the book on Postmodernism from the same series! Expect to see names you've never seen before, but read it!


Excellent!!   October 23, 2000
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Very possibly one of the best intros to the subject of Romanticism ever written. Full of info, and insight, the book covers the high and lows of the movement that influenced Napoleon, Beethoven, Kant, etc. Sweeping thru several countries, and numerous art forms, including music, literature, and theatre. One is introduced to the high wire tension of the Romantic, forever trapped between the Unreal (primal nature) and the Real (Civilization).


Interesting and really good for a layman/laywoman?   September 20, 2000
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

I have no idea how authority will speak of this book, but me, as a curious reader with interests in all the topics about art and literature find it a really fascinating book!

To begin with, I'm a foreigner, so the elegant English is in itself a beauty and value for me. And then, with the contents covering so much in western history, culture, literature & art, there's still an running clue getting all parts together. The authers performed so graciously such a daunting task and reveal such a profound, beautiful and enlightening world to me.

In a word, it's an enjoyment to read the book ( as a whole, though some part of it seems to me too redundent with academic-like details)