Romanticism and Music Culture in Britain, 1770-1840: Virtue and Virtuosity (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521117333)

Music was central to everyday life and expression in late Georgian Britain, and this is the first interdisciplinary study of its impact on Romantic literature. Focusing on the public fascination with virtuoso performance, Gillen D'Arcy Wood documents a struggle between sober 'literary' virtue and luxurious, effeminate virtuosity that staged deep anxieties over class, cosmopolitanism, machine technology, and the professionalization of culture. A remarkable synthesis of cultural history and literary criticism, this book opens new perspectives on key Romantic authors - including Burney, Wordsworth, Austen and Byron - and their relationship to definitive debates in late Georgian culture.

Author: Gillen D'Arcy Wood
ISBN-10: 052111733X
ISBN-13: 9780521117333
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/19/2010
Pages: 314
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 12/01/2010