Brimming with the fascinating eccentricities of a complex and confusing movement whose influences continue to resonate deeply, 30 Great Myths About the Romantics adds great clarity to what we know - or think we know - about one of the most important periods in literary history.* Explores the various misconceptions commonly associated with Romanticism, offering provocative insights that correct and clarify several of the commonly-held myths about the key figures of this era* Corrects some of the biases and beliefs about the Romantics that have crept into the 21st-century zeitgeist - for example that they were a bunch of drug-addled atheists who believed in free love; that Blake was a madman; and that Wordsworth slept with his sister* Celebrates several of the mythic objects, characters, and ideas that have passed down from the Romantics into contemporary culture - from Blake's Jerusalem and Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn to the literary genre of the vampire* Engagingly written to provide readers with a fun yet scholarly introduction to Romanticism and key writers of the period, applying the most up-to-date scholarship to the series of myths that continue to shape our appreciation of their work

Acknowledgements xiIntroduction xiiiA Note on Monetary Values xxviiMyth 1 Romanticism began in 1798 1Myth 2 English Romanticism was a reaction against the Enlightenment 8Myth 3 The Romantics hated the sciences 17Myth 4 The Romantics repudiated the Augustans, especially Pope and Dryden 29Myth 5 The Romantic poets were misunderstood, solitary geniuses 40Myth 6 Romantic poems were produced by spontaneous inspiration 49Myth 7 Blake was mad 58Myth 8 Blake wrote 'Jerusalem' as an anthem to Englishness 66Myth 9 Lyrical Ballads (1798) was designed to illustrate 'the two cardinal points of poetry', using poems about everyday life and the supernatural 74Myth 10 Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads was a manifesto for the Romantic revolution 82Myth 11 Wordsworth had an incestuous relationship with his sister 90Myth 12 Tory Wordsworth 98Myth 13 The person from Porlock 108Myth 14 Jane Austen had an incestuous relationship with her sister 115Myth 15 The Keswick rapist 124Myth 16 Byron had an affair with his sister 132Myth 17 Byron was a great lover of women 140Myth 18 Byron was a champion of democracy 149Myth 19 Byron was a 'noble warrior' who died fighting for Greek freedom 156Myth 20 Shelley committed suicide by sailboat 166Myth 21 Shelley's heart 175Myth 22 Keats's 'humble origins' 185Myth 23 Keats was gay 193Myth 24 Keats was killed by a review 203Myth 25 Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote Frankenstein 212Myth 26 Women writers were an exploited underclass - unknown, unloved, and unpaid 220Myth 27 The Romantics were atheists 232Myth 28 The Romantics were counter-cultural drug users 242Myth 29 The Romantics practised free love on principle 251Myth 30 The Romantics were the rock stars of their day 261Coda 270Further Reading 277Index 283