Byronism, Napoleonism, and Nineteenth-Century Realism: Heroes of Their Own Lives? (Among the Victorians and Modernists)

By: Tristan Donal Burke

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Synopsis: Byronism, Napoleonism and Nineteenth-Century Realism offers a fresh analysis of the nineteenth-century European novel, exploring the cultural images of Byron and Napoleon as they appear in the construction of ‘bourgeois heroism.’ Utilizing a unique pan-European perspective, this volume draws together concepts of heroism with theoretically informed questions of form, particularly the role of the hero-protagonist and development of literary realism. Observing Byron and Napoleon as parallel entities, whose rise and twin fame cast long shadows in the first decades of the nineteenth century, this text exemplifies the force of personality which made them heroes. Even where they were reviled, their commitment to challenging moribund cultural and social values make them touchstones for all those who attempted to understand the nineteenth century’s modernity. Integrating the study of heroism in the nineteenth-century novel with key developments in critical theory, Byronism, Napoleonism and Nineteenth-Century Realism is essential reading for students and scholars of the bourgeois hero, as well as those with a wider interest in nineteenth century literature.