Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature

556 Pages·1973·69.27 MB·English

by  M. H. Abrams

$3.95/N609
Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature
by M.H.Abrams
Author of Jbe "Mirror and the Lamb
I
The finest modem study ofthe Romanticachievement, its origins
indevolution both in theory and practice."
—
StuartM. Sperry, Jr., Indiana University

Natural Su^crnaturalism
TRADITION AND
REVOLUTION IN
ROMANTIC LITERATURE

Natural
Suyernaturalism
TRADITION AND REVOLUTION
IN ROMANTIC LITERATURE
M
ABRAMS
H.
The Norton Library
W W NORTON & COMPANY INC
NEW• YO•RK •
Copyright © 1971 byW. W. Norton &Company, Inc.
First published in the Norton Library 1973
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published simultaneously in Canada
by George McLeod Limited, Toronto
J.
BooksThatLive
TheNorton imprint on a book means that in the publisher's
estimationitis abooknotforasingleseasonbut fortheyears.
W.W.Norton &Company,Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Abrams, Meyer Howard.
Natural supernaturalism tradition and revolution in
:
romantic literature.
(Norton library)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Romanticism. I. Title.
[PN603.A3 1973] 809'.9'14 73-7855
ISBN 0-393-00609-3
P1ri2nt3ed4in5th6e7Un8it9ed0States of America
For Jane
and
For Judy

Contents
PREFACE
11
one/ "This Is Our High Argument" 17
1. Wordsworth's Program for Poetry 21
2. The Design of Biblical History 32
3. The Shape of Things to Come: The Apocalyptic
Marriage 37
4. Christian History and Christian Psycho-Biography 46
5. Alternative Ways to the Millennium: Progress and
Revolution 56
6. Natural Supernaturalism 65
two/
Wordsworth's Prelude and the
Crisis-Autobiography 71
1. The Idea of The Prelude 74
2. Proust's Gothic Church 80
3. The Art of Augustine's Confessions 83
4. The Transactions of Mind and Nature 88
5. The Theodicy of the Private Life 95
6. The Theodicy of the Landscape 97
7. The Redemptive Imagination 117
8 Contents
8. The New Mythus: Wordsworth, Keats, and Carlyle 122
9. Wordsworth as Evangelist 134
three/ The Circuitous Journey: Pilgrims and
Prodigals 141
1. The Great Circle: Pagan and Christian
Neoplatonism 146
2. Divided and Reunited Man: The Esoteric
Tradition 154
3. The Prodigal's Return 164
4. Forms of Romantic Imagination 169
four/ The Circuitous Journey: Through
Alienation to Reintegration 197
1. The Paradox of the Fortunate Division: Schiller and
Universal History 201
2. Romantic Philosophy and the High Romantic
Argument 217
3. Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit: Metaphysical
Structure and Narrative Plot 225
4. Some Other Educational Travelers: Holderlin's Hyperion,
Goethe'sFaust, the Romances of Novalis 237
five/ The Circuitous Journey: From Blake to
D. H. Lawrence 253
1. Unity Lost and Integrity Earned: Blake and
Coleridge 256
2. Wordsworth: The LongJourney Home 278
3. Romantic Love 292
4. Shelley's Prometheus Unbound 299
5. Carlyle and His Contemporaries 307
6. Four Versions of the Circuitous Return: Marx, Nietzsche,
Eliot, Lawrence 313