Shelley and the Revolutionary Sublime [Paperback]

A major new study of Percy Shelley's intellectual life and poetic career.A major new study of Percy Shelley's intellectual life and poetic career, Shelley and the Revolutionary Sublime identifies Shelley's fascination with sublime natural phenomena as a key element in his understanding of the way ideas like 'nature' and 'imagination' informed the social and political structures of the Romantic period. Cian Duffy offers not only a substantial reassessment of Shelley's work but also a significant re-appraisal of the role of the sublime in the cultural history of Britain during the Romantic period.A major new study of Percy Shelley's intellectual life and poetic career, Shelley and the Revolutionary Sublime identifies Shelley's fascination with sublime natural phenomena as a key element in his understanding of the way ideas like 'nature' and 'imagination' informed the social and political structures of the Romantic period. Cian Duffy offers not only a substantial reassessment of Shelley's work but also a significant re-appraisal of the role of the sublime in the cultural history of Britain during the Romantic period.Offering a genuinely fresh set of perspectives on Shelley's texts and contexts, Cian Duffy argues that Shelley's engagement with the British and French discourse on the sublime had a profound influence on his writing about political change in that age of revolutionary crisis. Examining Shelley's extensive use of sublime imagery and metaphor, Duffy offers not only a substantial reassessment of Shelley's work but also a significant re-appraisal of the sublime's role in the cultural history of Britain during the Romantic period as well as Shelley's fascination with natural phenomena.Introduction: approaching the Shelleyan sublime; 1. From religion to revolution, 181013; 2. Cultivating the imagination, 181315; 3. Mont Blanc and the Alps, 1816; 4. Writing the revolution: Laon and Cynthia, 181723; 5. 'Choose reform or civil war', 181819; Conclusion: 'Good andl‡