Heroic Imagination: The Creative Genius of Europe from Waterloo (1815) to the Revolution of 1848

by Frederic Ewen

Overview

Heroic Imagination Describes the historical period and the wide manifistation of creativity that took place between 1815 and 1848 in Europe, from Napoleon's downfall in the battle of Waterloo in 1815 to the "Restoration" that sought to bring back the old order preceding the French Revolution. While revolutions and historicle events were shaping the world, the "collective consciousness" of the public began to integrate with the creative consciousness of the individual. The creative energies of artists, philosophers, poets, political and social thinkers emerged and produced some of the most revered artistic geniuses in history, such as Beethoven, Byron, Pushkin, Balzac, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, Delacroix, Goya, and Goethe.
Frederic Ewen vividly depicts the "new" world of the early nineteenth century, and the assemblage of genius that produced a body of art that has become the unforgettable property of all ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814722251
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2004
Pages:	742
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.34(d)

About the Author

Frederic Ewen (1899-1988) was Professor of English Literature at Brooklyn College from 1930 until 1952, when he resigned rather than be fired for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. He went on to be a successful author and lecturer.

Table of Contents

	Prologue	xv
Part 1	Waterloo and After
I	The Anguish of Transition and Waterloo	5
I	The Anguish of Transition	5
II	Waterloo and After	9
II	England: "The Sceptered Isle" and "The Dark Satanic Mills"	21
I	"The Sceptered Isle"	23
II	"The Dark Satanic Mills"	29
III	Romanticism, Revolution and the Poets	37
1.	Wordsworth	39
2.	Blake	46
3.	Byron	64
4.	Keats	76
5.	Shelley	101
III	France: The Furnace of World History	119
I	Retreat from Glory	121
II	Decade of the 1820's: The Great Preparation	131
III	War of Doctrines and the Nature of Man: Utopia and Anti-Utopia	139
1.	Anti-Utopia: Man is Evil	143
2.	Utopia: Man is Good	151
IV	Victor Hugo and the Triumph of Romanticism	169
IV	Germany: The Dissevered Self	191
I	"Freedom," "Liberation," and Disenchantment	195
II	Romanticism: The Fragmented Self	201
1.	The Fragmented Self	201
2.	Novalis	207
3.	Friedrich Schlegel	212
4.	Heinrich von Kleist	218
5.	Adelbert von Chamisso	241
6.	E.T.A. Hoffmann	246
7.	Friedrich Holderlin	255
8.	Music: Beethoven	276
9.	The Lyric and the "Lied": Schubert	283
10.	Romanticism and Art	289
11.	Romanticism and the "State"	295
12.	"The Nightwatch"	298
13.	Austria: The Mask and the Face	300
V	"Skeleton of a Titanic form": The Italy of Giacomo Leopardi and Allessandro Manzoni	307
VI	The Agony of Spain and Francisco Goya	341
VII	Russia: "The First Revolution" and Alexander Pushkin	355
Part 2	The Rising Tide: 1830-1848
I	France--1830: Paris on the Barricades	417
II	1830 and the Artist	431
1.	Stendhal: "Le Rouge et le Noir"	431
2.	Berlioz: "Symphonie Fantastique"	448
3.	Delacroix: The Painter and Romanticism	461
III	France: 1831-1848	471
1.	Honore de Balzac and the Quest of the Absolute	471
2.	George Sand and the Quest of the Self	518
3.	Stendhal: Journey's End--"La Chartreuse de Parme"	550
IV	Paris: Magnet and Haven	569
1.	Heinrich Heine: A German Apollo in Paris	571
2.	Adam Mickiewicz: Poland's Poet-Prophet	597
3.	Jose de Espronceda: Spain's Childe Harold	620
V	End of an Epoch: Goethe, Weimar and the Transfiguration of Faust	639
	Notes	717
	Index	737