3. Romanticism

In the 1820s Britain welcomed the independence of Spain's South American colonies and aided the Greek rebellion against the Turkish rule. The events in Greece were praised and supported by Romantic writers and poets. Extending from about 1789 until 1837, the Romantic age stressed emotion over reason. In English literature the Romantic age was characterized by the subordination of reason to intuition and passion, as well as the cult of nature (much as the word is understood now). Individual will was superior to social norms of behaviour, immediate experience was more important than generalized and typical experience.

The first Romantics were the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Wordsworth adored and idealized the countryside and nature. Another Romantic poet and novelist was Sir Walter Scott. At the beginning of his literary career he wrote poetry. After the publication of the poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Scott became the most famous poet of the day. Later though, he turned to novels. Walter Scott is known as the founder of the historical novel in English literature.

Walter Scott was a faithful son of Scotland and studied the past of his native land through documents, history and legends. His most famous novels are Ivanhoe, Rob Roy and Quentin Durward. When his business partner died leaving Scott to pay the debts, the writer had to start working day and night. That explains the fact why Scott's later novels are less elaborately worked out than the earlier ones.

Unlike Coleridge, Wordsworth and Scott the next generation of Romantic poets were full of revolutionary spirit.George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) exemplifies a personality in tragic revolt against society. Byron was born to an aristocratic family and educated at Harrow College. The boy was not very tall and, what is more, he was lame. That is why he gave much of his time to sports – in order to compensate for his physical deficiency. He also traveled a lot – both in England an on the Continent. When his first book of poems (Hours of idleness) was published in 1807, he was bitterly criticized in the press. But that didn’t stop him. He retorted with an epigram and continued writing.

Byron traveled a lot – both in England an on the Continent. In 1809-1811 he travelled to Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Greece. The earliest fruits of his travels were the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812). The poem brought him immediate success and established his reputation as a great poet of England. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is partly autobiographical. The hero is a disillusioned rebel, demanding absolute personal freedom, who quickly became the symbol of the vanguard literary thought in Europe. Byron let his hero travel from country to country, filling the poem with vivid descriptions and satirical remarks.

Between 1813 and 1816 Byron wrote Oriental Tales, which included 4 pieces. In 1816 he left England and up to 1823 lived in Switzerland and Italy, where he at first supported and later joined the Carbonari movement. He wrote two more cantos of Childe Harold, Manfred and the most famous of his poems, Don Juan, which was not finished.

In the 1820s Byron got particularly interested in the struggle of Greece against Turkey. He financed the buying of medicines and arms for the Greeks and then joined them in person. He participated in the defence of the Fortress of Missolungui. There he went down with a fever and died.

Byron produced a tremendous impact on A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, W. Goethe and other European poets. They translated and imitated Byron's poems. Pushkin described Oneguin as “москвич в гарольдовом плаще”, “вторым Онегин Чильд Гарольдом”. Byron's poem My Soul Is Dark was wonderfully well translated by M. Lermontov.