Romanticism and Animal Rights [Hardcover]

Shows how English Romantic writing took up issues of what we now call animal rights.In England in the second half of the eighteenth century an unprecedented amount of writing urged kindness to animals. This theme was carr ied in many genres, from sermons to encyclopedias, from scientific works to literature for children, and to the poetry of Cowper, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Clare and others. Romanticism and Animal Rights shows how English Romantic writing took up issues of what we now call animal rights. In this respect it joins the growing number of studies that seek precedents or affinities in English Romanticism for our own ecological concerns.In England in the second half of the eighteenth century an unprecedented amount of writing urged kindness to animals. This theme was carr ied in many genres, from sermons to encyclopedias, from scientific works to literature for children, and to the poetry of Cowper, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Clare and others. Romanticism and Animal Rights shows how English Romantic writing took up issues of what we now call animal rights. In this respect it joins the growing number of studies that seek precedents or affinities in English Romanticism for our own ecological concerns.Demonstrating how English Romantic writing took up issues of what we now call animal rights, this study joins the growing number of studies that seek precedents or affinities in English Romanticism for ecological concerns. An unprecedented amount of writing advocated kindness to animals in England during the second half of the eighteenth century. This theme was carried through many genres, from sermons to encyclopedias, scientific works to literature for children, and to the poetry of Cowper, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Clare and others.Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. In the beginning of animal rights; 2. Grounds of argument; 3. Keeping pets: William Cowper and his hares; 4. Barbarian pleasures: against hunting; 5. Savage amusements of the poor: John Clare's badger sol,