A Half-Century of Greatness: The Creative Imagination of Europe, 1848-1884

Frederic Ewen

Published by New York University Press 2007

A Half-Century of Greatness

The Creative Imagination of Europe, 1848-1884

Frederic Ewen
Edited by: Jeffrey Wollock and Aaron Kramer

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814722800.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008
A Half-Century of Greatness paints a vivid and dramatic picture of the creative thought of mid- to late nineteenth century Europe and the influence of the unsuccessful revolutions of 1848. It reveals often unexpected links between novelists, poets, and philosophers from England, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine—especially Dickens, Carlyle, Mill, the Brontës, and George Eliot; Hegel, Strauss, Feuerbach, Marx, Engels, Wagner, and several German poets; the Hungarian poet Sándor Petöfi; Gogol, Dostoevsky, Bakunin, and Herzen in Russia, and the great Ukrainian poet Shevchenko. Ewen goes on to trace the transition from Romanticism to Victorianism, or what he calls “the Victorian compromise”—the ascendancy of the middle class.
The book was reconstructed and edited by Dr. Jeffrey Wollock from Ewen’s final manuscript. It includes the author's own reference citations throughout, a reconstructed bibliography, and an updated “further reading” list.
This is Ewen’s last work, the long-lost companion to his Heroic Imagination. Together, these books present a panorama of the social, political, and artistic aspects of European Romanticism, especially foreshadowing and complementing recent work on the relation of Marxism to romanticism. Anyone interested in what Lukacs called “Romantic anticapitalism,”; who appreciates such books as Marshall Berman's Adventures in Marxism or E.P. Thompson's The Romantics (1997), will find Ewen’s work a welcome addition.

Author / Editor information

Ewen Frederic :

Frederic Ewen (1899-1988) was Professor of English Literature at Brooklyn College from 1930 until 1952, when he resigned rather than be fired for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. He went on to be a successful author and lecturer.Wollock Jeffrey :

Jeffrey Wollock, an intellectual historian, is Research Director at the Solidarity Foundation in New York.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Editor’s Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Aaron Kramer Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Part I: England at the Great Divide: 1830-1848
1. The Battle for Reform Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. The Battle for Minds and Secular Salvation: “Utopia” and “Utility” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
3. Thomas Carlyle: Out of the “Nay” into the “Everlasting Yea” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
4. Charles Dickens: The Novel in “The Battle of Life” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
5. John Stuart Mill: The Majesty of Reason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
PART II. Russia: Dark Laughter and Siberia Nikolay Gogol and Young Dostoevsky
1. The Dark Laughter of Nikolay Gogol Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
2. Young Dostoevsky: The Road to Siberia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
PART III. Europe: Revolution 1848-1849
1. The Lightning of Ideas: Reason and Revolution 1835-1848 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
2. Revolution: 1848-1849 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
3. The Lyre and the Sword: Art and Revolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256
Part IV : Swan Song and Elegy: Germany and the Poets
PART V: England: Crystal Palace and Bleak House
1. The March of Empire and the Victorian Conscience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375
2. The Novel and the Crisis of Conscience: The Brontës— The Caged Rebels of Haworth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	390
PART VI. Woman of Valor: George Eliot and the Victorians
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	497
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	521
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	537

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: Half-Century; Greatness; paints; vivid; dramatic; picture; creative; thought; mid-; late; nineteenth; century; Europe; influence; unsuccessful; Revolutions; 1848

eBook

Published: September 1, 2007
ISBN: 9780814722800