Romantic Affinities: Portraits From an Age 1780-1830 - Tapa blanda

"Both scholarly and funny... a stylish, spirited and provoking extravaganza" (Richard Holmes Evening Standard)

"Exuberant and inventive" (Peter Ackroyd The Times)

"Entertainingly anecdotal, as well as intelligently documentary" (Times Literary Supplement)

"Exciting, absorbing and revealing" (John Carey Sunday Times)

"A feast for those for whom the word 'joy' was never associated with English lessons" (Val Hennessey Daily Mail)

Romantic Affinities presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of Europe in an era of tumultuous change, as experienced and communicated by the writers of the age. Set against the hopes and dreams inspired by the French Revolution, the disillusion caused by its failure and the turmoil of the Napoleonic wars that followed, Rupert Christiansen draws the threads into an exciting narrative.

Ranging over politics, art, music and using the voices of celebrated Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, Goethe and Pushkin, as well as less familiar Chenier, Hölderlin, Hoffman and de Staël, he vividly recreates one of the most fascinating and complex periods of modern history and offers fresh perspecitves on its magnificent literature and culture.