Preromanticism [Paperback]

Using an outmoded term in an entirely new way, Preromanticism seeks the common ground of British literature from 1740 to 1798 not in foreshadowings of Romanticism but in incomplete discoveries and in impediments to expression that Romanticism was to lift. Featuring readings of masterpieces in all genres that draw widely on recent innovations in literary theory, it highlights the variety of experimentation in a transitional epoch.

This is a major achievement, an artfully written and carefully articulated contribution to the theory of literary history, and a powerful interpretation of eighteenth-century literature with which all scholars in the field will have to contend. —Philosophy and Literature

“This is a major achievement, an artfully written and carefully articulated contribution to the theory of literary history, and a powerful interpretation of eighteenth-century literature with which all scholars in the field will have to contend.”—Philosophy and Literature