Description
Book SynopsisThis text examines the concept of the mental landscape in American romantic literature. It contends that this landscape creates a space in the imagination that helps to form a writer's perspective. The book also explores the function of literary allusion in 19th-century American romance.
Trade Review'A book of the first importance. I take particular delight in its moral intelligence, its deep aesthetic insight, and its ability to sketch a powerful and suggestive theory of American romanticism in a few strokes ... What this book is finally about is not only what an American romance is, but also how to specify the conditions under which imagination imagines and the logic of its action ... It also enters with beautiful precision and accessibility into the deep and primary questions of what art is supposed to be about and for.' John Burt, Brandeis University
Table of ContentsA note on sources; Introduction; Part I. Hawthorne: Re-placing Romance: 1. Prefatory remarks; 2. A wonder book; 3. The marble faun; Part II. Melville and James: The far-Hidden Places: 4. Melville: inland voyages; 5. James: 'the science of my response'; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
