Shelley and the Revolution in Taste: The Body and the Natural World

Cambridge Studies in Romanticism

by Timothy Morton

This groundbreaking study addresses the representation of food and drink in the works of Percy and Mary Shelley. With original studies of much-debated texts, it provides new perspectives in recent cultural history and theory concerning medicine and diet in the 1790SH1820 period. Morton shows how food in the social and literary text provided complex and ambivalent ways of signaling ideological preferences. It will appeal to all those interested in the body, ecology and social and anthropological approaches to Romantic literature.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

316 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Timothy Bloxam Morton is Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University. They are the author of Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence; Nothing: Three Inquiries in Buddhism (with Marcus Boon and Eric Cazdyn); Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World; and other books.

Reviews

[Sean Barrs · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Jessica DMJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, feeling generous so I'll round it to three. To be honest, I felt like only the introduction and first two chapters were good. This first third of the book feels much more grounded than the other two-thirds, which quickly became esoteric. Past the 80 page mark, the author expects you to understand and know Heidegger, Malthus, Hobbes, Hegel, and a series of other philosophers and critical theorists. This made the majority of the book inaccessible; it was also trying to cover too much.

I also wasn't always convinced by Morton's literary analyses or arguments. I think this book would've been better had it follow the stroke of the first third.

The first third was very useful for my research and easier to digest than the rest.

[Rebecca Hathaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insight and helpful read for those studying Shelley, especially in terms of critical and contemporary dialogue surrounding his diet.