The Romantics and the British Landscape Book

The melancholic beauty of the British landscape was a central influence on the life and work of the Romantic poets. Not content to merely depict rural life or point out nature’s splendor, the Romantics explored the natural world’s effects on the mind, memory, and emotions. Through their poetry and other writings they showed the power of the imagination to transform the environment. In The Romantics and the British Landscape, Stephen Hebron focuses on five major poets—William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and John Clare—and reveals how their relationship with the natural world changed over time and according to their purpose or mood. Stunning portraits, original manuscripts, and watercolors, including works by J. M. W. Turner and John Constable, complement Hebron’s analysis of the Romantics’ literary output. Indispensable for anyone seeking to understand the context of the Romantics’ impassioned response to their surroundings, Hebron’s book is an inspiring guide to their world.Read More