Bacchus In Romantic England: Writers And Drink, 1780-1830; Author: Taylor, Anya; Author: Taylor; Hardcover

Author: Taylor, Anya; Author: Taylor
Romanticism in Perspective: Texts, Cultures, Histories; Hardcover; Illustrated
Published: September 1998
St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312214995

Although many books have studied writers and alcohol in modern American literature, the rich culture of drinking and the many poems and narratives about it in the Romantic period in Englandhave been entirely neglected. Bacchus in Romantic England: Writers and Drink 1780-1830 is the first study to describe the bulk and variety of writings about drinking; to set these poems, novels, essays, letters and journals in a historical, sociological, and medical context; to demonstrate the importance of drunkenness in the works of a number of major and minor writers of the period; and to suggest that during these years, for a short time, the pleasures and pains of drinking are held in a vivacious balance. The book argues that the figure of the drinker tests the margins of the human being,