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The Shelley-Byron Conversation
William Dean Brewer
出版
University Press of Florida
, 1994
主題
Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Literary Criticism / Poetry
ISBN
0813013003
9780813013008
URL
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=jyTbwAEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
註釋
"All advanced students of English Romanticism would find this book of use. . . . From the first, Brewer recognizes that the conversation between Shelley and Byron is, in the deepest sense, stylistic rather than moralistic."--Stuart Curran, University of Pennsylvania "Lucid, direct, and refreshingly unpretentious in its intellectual approach."--Peter Graham, Virginia Polytechnic Institute While critics traditionally have seen Shelley and Byron as two irreconcilable opposites, separated by both temperament and philosophy, this study--informed by scholarship of the past eighteen years, since Charles Robinson's landmark study--explores their six-year relationship and argues that it was more collaborative than contentious.
Shelley and Byron first met at Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in 1816, brought together by Claire Clairmont (Mary Shelley's stepsister and the Shelleys' traveling companion). The two poets soon discovered that they shared radical political sympathies and a determination to abandon moral platitudes and religious cant. From the beginning it appears that they inspired each other and those around them. After this encounter Byron began a new phase in his development, Shelley embarked on a major work, and Mary Shelley completed
Frankenstein.
In 1818, the men came together again in Venice for their most important interaction. In the period of intense creativity that followed, both wrote their masterworks: Shelley composed
Julian and Maddalo
(a poem inspired by their discussions) and began writing
Prometheus Unbound
and Byron completed the first canto of
Don Juan
and all of
Mazeppa.
By analyzing the echoes and allusions found in their writing, Brewer suggests that Shelley and Byron transformed each other's work. His discussion of
Julian and Maddalo
considers the conversational style each poet came to employ; his analysis of
Cain
shows how it reflects their mutual interest in Prometheanism and their fascination with the Devil; his examination of
The Triumph of Life
includes an appraisal of the influence of Goethe's
Faust
on both.
In general, Brewer says, Shelley and Byron have not been given credit for their willingness to learn from each other. Their personal and literary dialogues ranged from discussions of their social-activist goals to their perceptions of the benighted and tragic state of humanity, shaping some of the most important achievements of the Romantic era. William D. Brewer is associate professor of English at Appalachian State University. He is the editor of
New Essays on Lord Byron
and the author of articles in
Philological Quarterly, The Keats-Shelley Journal,
and other publications.
