Diehards and Innovators: The French Romantic Struggle, 1800-1830

This work is an attempt to reveal to the English-speaking reader the development of the French brand of Romanticism. The 30-year surge toward a new aesthetic involved a complex series of actions and reactions by groups and individuals which has fascinated philosophers, historians and literary critics because political bias created strange allegiances and pronouncements. The classical diehards sought to define romanticism in order to oppose it, and the romantic innovators pursued the same goal in order to understand it and provide illustrations of it. Since many theoretical statements and creative works were reproduced and reviewed in the magazines and newspapers of the day, this book especially focuses on the major periodicals to describe the quest for aesthetic freedom.