Dante and Italy in British Romanticism

“This volume, which brings together several of the most authoritative scholars in the field, represents a landmark in the study of Anglo-Italian literary and cultural relations in the Romantic period. It succeeds brilliantly in combining two very different but complementary virtues. On the one hand it revisits, in unexpected and illuminating ways, well-chartered territory such as the Romantic poets reading of Dante, their experience of the Grand Tour, their perception of Italian history and of modern Italy. On the other hand it opens up new areas of cultural investigation reflecting recent approaches to the canons and contexts of British Romanticism: these include the influence of Italian theatre, visual arts, grand opera, improvisational performance, not to mention the Italian language itself, on early nineteenth-century English literature and drama. Challenging new attention is paid to relatively non-canonical authors, among them hitherto little-discussed women writers and illegitimate dramatists. Dante and Italy in British Romanticism throws much-needed light on a crucial period of political and social transformation in Italy, as seen from the critical but sympathetic viewpoint of contemporary British intellectuals, reaffirming the centrality of Dante s role in the formation and interpretation of Italy s late and contradictory identity as a nation.”

— Lilla Maria Crisafulli, University of Bologna