Starting with a new understanding of what Romantic-era literature is--and who wrote it--the essays here reassess British Romanticism in light of Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, Alfieri, and contemporary Italian figures such as Paganini and the improvvisatore Tommaso Sgricci. The British absorption of Italian literature and culture was mediated by authors residing in Florence, Naples, Pisa, and Rome, including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hunt, Byron, the Shelleys, and Hemans. Providing insight on topics from the artistic practice of improvisation to the politics of nationalism, this learned volume breaks new ground and significantly extends our understanding of the relations between British and Italian culture.
