A Half-Century of Greatness: The Creative Imagination of Europe, 1848-1884

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008

A Half-Century of Greatness paints a vivid and dramatic picture of the creative thought of mid- to late nineteenth century Europe and the influence of the unsuccessful revolutions of 1848. It reveals often unexpected links between novelists, poets, and philosophers from England, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine—especially Dickens, Carlyle, Mill, the Brontës, and George Eliot; Hegel, Strauss, Feuerbach, Marx, Engels, Wagner, and several German poets; the Hungarian poet Sándor Petöfi; Gogol, Dostoevsky, Bakunin, and Herzen in Russia, and the great Ukrainian poet Shevchenko. Ewen goes on to trace the transition from Romanticism to Victorianism, or what he calls “the Victorian compromise”—the ascendancy of the middle class.

The book was reconstructed and edited by Dr. Jeffrey Wollock from Ewen’s final manuscript. It includes the author's own reference citations throughout, a reconstructed bibliography, and an updated “further reading” list.

This is Ewen’s last work, the long-lost companion to his Heroic Imagination. Together, these books present a panorama of the social, political, and artistic aspects of European Romanticism, especially foreshadowing and complementing recent work on the relation of Marxism to romanticism. Anyone interested in what Lukacs called “Romantic anticapitalism,”; who appreciates such books as Marshall Berman's Adventures in Marxism or E.P. Thompson's The Romantics (1997), will find Ewen’s work a welcome addition.

1100314136
A Half-Century of Greatness: The Creative Imagination of Europe, 1848-1884

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008

A Half-Century of Greatness paints a vivid and dramatic picture of the creative thought of mid- to late nineteenth century Europe and the influence of the unsuccessful revolutions of 1848. It reveals often unexpected links between novelists, poets, and philosophers from England, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine—especially Dickens, Carlyle, Mill, the Brontës, and George Eliot; Hegel, Strauss, Feuerbach, Marx, Engels, Wagner, and several German poets; the Hungarian poet Sándor Petöfi; Gogol, Dostoevsky, Bakunin, and Herzen in Russia, and the great Ukrainian poet Shevchenko. Ewen goes on to trace the transition from Romanticism to Victorianism, or what he calls “the Victorian compromise”—the ascendancy of the middle class.

The book was reconstructed and edited by Dr. Jeffrey Wollock from Ewen’s final manuscript. It includes the author's own reference citations throughout, a reconstructed bibliography, and an updated “further reading” list.

This is Ewen’s last work, the long-lost companion to his Heroic Imagination. Together, these books present a panorama of the social, political, and artistic aspects of European Romanticism, especially foreshadowing and complementing recent work on the relation of Marxism to romanticism. Anyone interested in what Lukacs called “Romantic anticapitalism,”; who appreciates such books as Marshall Berman's Adventures in Marxism or E.P. Thompson's The Romantics (1997), will find Ewen’s work a welcome addition.

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A Half-Century of Greatness: The Creative Imagination of Europe, 1848-1884

A Half-Century of Greatness: The Creative Imagination of Europe, 1848-1884

A Half-Century of Greatness: The Creative Imagination of Europe, 1848-1884

A Half-Century of Greatness: The Creative Imagination of Europe, 1848-1884

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Overview

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008

A Half-Century of Greatness paints a vivid and dramatic picture of the creative thought of mid- to late nineteenth century Europe and the influence of the unsuccessful revolutions of 1848. It reveals often unexpected links between novelists, poets, and philosophers from England, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine—especially Dickens, Carlyle, Mill, the Brontës, and George Eliot; Hegel, Strauss, Feuerbach, Marx, Engels, Wagner, and several German poets; the Hungarian poet Sándor Petöfi; Gogol, Dostoevsky, Bakunin, and Herzen in Russia, and the great Ukrainian poet Shevchenko. Ewen goes on to trace the transition from Romanticism to Victorianism, or what he calls “the Victorian compromise”—the ascendancy of the middle class.

The book was reconstructed and edited by Dr. Jeffrey Wollock from Ewen’s final manuscript. It includes the author's own reference citations throughout, a reconstructed bibliography, and an updated “further reading” list.

This is Ewen’s last work, the long-lost companion to his Heroic Imagination. Together, these books present a panorama of the social, political, and artistic aspects of European Romanticism, especially foreshadowing and complementing recent work on the relation of Marxism to romanticism. Anyone interested in what Lukacs called “Romantic anticapitalism,”; who appreciates such books as Marshall Berman's Adventures in Marxism or E.P. Thompson's The Romantics (1997), will find Ewen’s work a welcome addition.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780814722459
Publisher: New York University Press
Publication date: 09/01/2007
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 570
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Frederic Ewen (1899-1988) was Professor of English Literature at Brooklyn College from 1930 until 1952, when he resigned rather than be fired for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. He went on to be a successful author and lecturer.


Jeffrey Wollock, an intellectual historian, is Research Director at the Solidarity Foundation in New York.

Table of Contents

Editor’s Introduction Foreword by Aaron KramerPart I: England at the Great Divide:1830–1848 1 The Battle for Reform2 The Battle for Minds and Secular Salvation: “Utopia” and “Utility” 3 Thomas Carlyle: Out of the “Nay” into the “Everlasting Yea”4 Charles Dickens: The Novel in “The Battle of Life” 5 John Stuart Mill: The Majesty of Reason Part II: Russia: Dark Laughter and SiberiaNikolay Gogol and Young Dostoevsky1 The Dark Laughter of Nikolay Gogol 2 Young Dostoevsky: The Road to Siberia Part III: Europe: Revolution 1848–1849 1 The Lightning of Ideas: Reason and Revolution 1835–1848 2 Revolution:1848–1849 3 The Lyre and the Sword: Art and Revolution Part IV: Swan Song and Elegy: Germany and the Poets  Part V: England: Crystal Palace and Bleak House Part VI: Woman of Valor: George Eliot and the Victorians Notes Bibliography Primary SourcesSecondary SourcesFurther Reading for Heroic Imagination and A Half-Century of Greatness Index 
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