A major new study of Percy Shelley's intellectual life and poetic career, Shelley and the Revolutionary Sublime identifies Shelley's fascination with sublime natural phenomena as a key element in his understanding of the way ideas like 'nature' and 'imagination' informed the social and political structures of the Romantic period. Offering a genuinely fresh set of perspectives on Shelley's texts and contexts, Cian Duffy argues that Shelley's engagement with the British and French discourse on the sublime had a profound influence on his writing about political change in that age of revolutionary crisis. Examining Shelley's extensive use of sublime imagery and metaphor, Duffy offers not only a substantial reassessment of Shelley's work but also a significant re-appraisal of the role of the sublime in the cultural history of Britain during the Romantic period.

A major new study of Percy Shelley's intellectual life and poetic career.

About the Author
Cian Duffy is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of York.

Reviews
'Cian Duffy's book is important for its refutation of the popularly held belief that Shelley's early materialism gave way to a Berkeleyan idealism ... its correction of the conventional view that Kant is the source of Shelley's responses to the sublime ... impressive ... in its relation of canonical to marginal texts ... as well as its highly persuasive extended readings of these texts. Duffy's accessible style allows Shelley's ideas to be seen clearly.' The Times Literary Supplement
'... [a] scrupulously argued and impressively researched monograph.' Bars Bulletin & Review



Book Information
ISBN 9780521854009
Author Cian Duffy
Format Hardback
Page Count 280
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 580g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 19mm