Status Updates From Romanticism and Its Discont...

At one stage Romantic meant anything capable of being described in a novel ’dans un roman’. Even within the limits of this definition, one is legitimately aware of the fact that the Romantic Movement in France leans towards forms of literature: predominantly pastoral or pantheistic in England, predominantly revivalist and nationalist in Germany, Romanticism is consistently literary or theatrical in France.

J-K Huysmans had a job at the ministry of the interior "his working day was short from midday to five-thirty, &his duties were not onerous. Most of his letters appear to have been written at his desk."
The poor man - if only he had had a computer just imagine how chronically overworked he would have been!

"The Goncourts belong to the school of so I Romanticism, Romanticism as disability, whereas their contemporary Zola, personifies Romanticism as energy".

Truely there is a different romanticism for every day of the year

Brookner tells us that by using Baudelaire's definition then both Inges and Delacroix can be considered Romantics even though both declared themselves to be working in the classical tradition.
Everyone is a Romantic especially if they deny it. But if everything is Romanticism is the term lacking in specific meaning ?

"It is possible to regard Inbred as a Romantic even in his classical disguise ".

And the secret of this book...everyone is a Romantic if the author wants them to be!

Stendhal defined Romanticism in literature as that most likely to please the contemporary public, whereas classicism was what would most likely appeal to its grandparents. Thus the past was dismissed: it was simply irrelevant.

Napoleon bequeathed a legacy of aspiration and regret that continued to resonate...perhaps the traces are still perceptible today...heroes are no longer taken on trust, & the inevitable outcome is a disappointment that is both different & strangely familiar.

"Out of many possible definitions, one early one is worth retaining: at one stage Romantic meant anything capable of being described in a novel."

Evidently she and I read different novels as that strikes me as the least helpful definition of Romanticism ever

A Romantic has been roughly defined as anyone who believes that it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.