Shelley and the Revolutionary Sublime

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. 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 role of the sublime in the cultural history of Britain during the Romantic period.

Reviews & endorsements

'Cian Duffy's book is important for its refutation of the popularly held belief that Shelley's early materialism gave way to a Berkeleyan idealism … its correction of the conventional view that Kant is the source of Shelley's responses to the sublime … impressive … in its relation of canonical to marginal texts … as well as its highly persuasive extended readings of these texts. Duffy's accessible style allows Shelley's ideas to be seen clearly.' The Times Literary Supplement

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Product details

• Date Published: June 2009
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521111836
• length: 280 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 16 mm
• weight: 0.41kg
• availability: Available