Passion's Triumph over Reason presents a comprehensive survey of ideas of emotion, appetite, and self-control in English literature and moral thought of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In a narrative which draws on tragedy, epic poetry, and moral philosophy, Christopher Tilmouth explores how Renaissance writers transformed their understanding of the passions, re-evaluating emotion so as to make it an important constituent of ethical life rather than the enemy within which allegory had traditionally cast it as being. This interdisciplinary study departs from current emphases in intellectual history, arguing that literature should be explored alongside the moral rather than political thought of its time. The book also develops a new approach to understanding the relationship between literature and philosophy. Consciously or not, moral thinkers tend to ground their philosophising in certain images of human nature. Their work is premissed on imagined models of the mind and presumed estimates of man's moral potential. In other words, the thinking of philosophical authors (as much as that of literary ones) is shaped by the pre-rational assumptions of the 'moral imagination'. Because that is so, poets and dramatists in their turn, in speaking to this material, typically do more than just versify the abstract ideas of ethics. They reflect, directly and critically, upon those same core assumptions which are integral to the writings of their philosophical counterparts. Authors examined here include Aristotle, Augustine, Hobbes, and an array of lyric poets; but there are new readings, too, of The Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost, Hamlet and Julius Caesar, Dryden's 'Lucretius', and Etherege's Man of Mode. Tilmouth's study concludes with a revisionist interpretation of the works of the Earl of Rochester, presenting this libertine poet as a challenging, intellectually serious figure. Written in a lucid, accessible style, this book will appeal to a wide range of readers.
Reviews
a learned and cohesive exploration of major cultural interpretations of passion and reason...Erudite and thought-provoking. * Sheila Cavanagh, Modern Language Review *
eloquently outlined... Tilmouth moves us into new and exciting territory ... in this excellent, groundbreaking study. * Andrew Hadfield, Times Literary Supplement *
This is a splendid work of intellectual history; and Rochester, in particular, may have found his best critic * Thomas Macfaul, Notes and Queries Journal *
As individual expository inquiries into the reason-passion relations, Tilmouth's chapters are brilliant pieces of scholarship: meticulous, detailed, knowledgeable, patient, and philosophically penetrating. ... Passion's Triumph over Reason is a first-rate achievement that repays close study. It is a fine book to think with (or against). Its broad vision can explain how libertinism emerged in the late seventeenth century, and it is a learned corrective to accounts that highlight only the rise of rationalism throughout the Enlightenment. * Tzachi Zamir, Renaissance Quarterly *
Tilmouth's Passion's Triumph over Reason tells a more familiar story but in such comprehensive detail and with such a well-informed reading of a vast diversity of literary texts that it will prove useful to a wide array of scholars from beginning to advanced. * Catherine Gimelli Martin, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *
a lucid, thorough account of changing attitudes toward the passions in England from the late sixteenth through the seventeenth centuries...Tilmouth's historical narrative is comprehensive, and he treats a usefully broad range of literary and moral psychological texts...Tilmouth's work will help bolster a line of scholarship that is truly interdisciplinary in its treatment of moral philosophy and (what we now call) literature. * Amelia A. Zurcher, The Review of English Studies *
Christopher Tilmouth has written one of the more engaging early modern studies in recent memory ... an impressive display of erudition combined with incisive and often savvy readings of a number of literary and philosophical texts * Ake Bergvall, Clio: A Journal of Literature, History and the Philosophy of History *
Tilmouth's book features thorough and often insightful analysis * Jonathan Sircy, Spenser Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199593040
Author Christopher Tilmouth
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 155mm * 24mm