A half-century of greatness : the creative imagination of Europe, 1848-1884 / Frederic Ewen ; edited by Jeffrey Wollock ; foreword by Aaron Kramer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ewen, Frederic, 1899-1988.

Contributor:

Wollock, Jeffrey L.

Ewen, Frederic, 1899-1988.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Europe--Intellectual life--19th century.

Europe.

Intellectual life.

Romanticism--Europe.

Romanticism.

Europe--History--1848-1849.

History.

Revolutions--Europe--History--19th century.

Revolutions.

Europe--History--1789-1900.

Physical Description:

xviii, 571 pages ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2007]

Summary:

Dedicating Heroic Imagination to his students was, of course, a most gracious act on the part of the author, but utterly in keeping, since it was to us, after all, that he had dedicated-through a shining life-span-his energies and his genius.... Opening the first volume in 1984 was like stepping into our professor's room again and, half a century later, reviewing the grand experience of our youth, when each day's lecture whetted the appetite for more.... To relive the grand aspirations that culminated in 1848, and to share in their swift defeat, is a shattering experience for the reader. But Ewen lets us know that Hegel's dialectics were at work: thesis and antithesis inexorably leading to synthesis, destined to bring new struggles, even victories. If 1848 spelled the end of Romanticism, out of the ashes leaped Realism, its child. As for humanity's craving to be free, could it be stamped out by the hired boots of a Tsar, a Metternich, any more than Zeus could vanquish the flame of Prometheus?

Contents:

Part I England at the Great Divide: 1830-1848 1

1 The Battle for Reform 3

2 The Battle for Minds and Secular Salvation: "Utopia" and "Utility" 13

1 "Utopia" 13

2 "Utility" and "Happiness" 16

3 Thomas Carlyle: Out of the "Nay" into the "Everlasting Yea" 20

4 Charles Dickens: The Novel in "The Battle of Life" 42

5 John Stuart Mill: The Majesty of Reason 67

Part II Russia: Dark Laughter and Siberia Nikolay Gogol and Young Dostoevsky 95

1 The Dark Laughter of Nikolay Gogol 97

2 Young Dostoevsky: The Road to Siberia 124

Part III Europe: Revolution 1848-1849 157

1 The Lightning of Ideas: Reason and Revolution 1835-1848 159

1 G. W. F. Hegel 160

2 David Friedrich Strauss 170

3 Ludwig Feuerbach 176

4 Karl Marx 186

5 Friedrich Engels 197

6 Marx and Engels 202

2 Revolution: 1848-1849 210

1 France 213

2 Germany 241

3 Austria 245

4 Failure of the Revolutions 250

3 The Lyre and the Sword: Art and Revolution 256

1 Hungary-July 31, 1849: Sandor Petofi-The Poet as Warrior 256

2 Russia: Tsar and Serf-Taras Shevchenko 275

3 Siegfried on the Barricades: Richard Wagner in Dresden, May 1849 289

4 Alexander Herzen and the Russian Self-Exiled 314

Part IV Swan Song and Elegy: Germany and the Poets 327

1 Georg Buchner 330

2 Georg Herwegh 341

3 Ferdinand Freiligrath 346

4 Georg Weerth and Adolf Glassbrenner 353

5 Heinrich Heine 363

Part V England: Crystal Palace and Bleak House 373

1 The March of Empire and the Victorian Conscience 375

2 The Novel and the Crisis of Conscience: The Brontes-The Caged Rebels of Haworth 390

Part VI Woman of Valor: George Eliot and the Victorians 441

Further Reading for Heroic Imagination and A Half-Century of Greatness 534.

Notes:

Continues: Heroic imagination.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 521-535) and index.

Related Work:

Ewen, Frederic, 1899-1988. Heroic imagination.

ISBN:

9780814722367

0814722369

OCLC:

76481518

Online:

Publisher description

Contributor biographical information