The landscapes of the sublime, 1700-1830 : classic ground

The Landscapes of the Sublime examines the place of the 'natural sublime' in the cultural history of the eighteenth century and Romantic period. Drawing on a range of scholarship and historical sources, it offers a fresh perspective on the different species of the 'natural sublime' encountered by British and European travellers and explorers. The Landscapes of the Sublime, 1700-1830 is a major new study of the place of the 'natural sublime' in the cultural history of the eighteenth century and Romantic period. Drawing on a range of scholarship on the eighteenth century and Romantic period, on the wider category of 'the sublime' in Western and European thought, and on the praxis of literary and historical exegesis, the book generates new cultural histories of the different species of the 'natural sublime' encountered by British and European travellers and explorers, including: the Alps; the Italian volcanoes, Vesuvius and Etna; the Arctic and the Antarctic; the deserts of central and southern Africa; and the universe being revealed by the new astronomy Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction: In Search of ‘Classic Ground’....Pages 1-27 ‘We had hopes that pointed to the clouds’: The Alps and the Poetics of Ascent....Pages 28-67 ‘A volcano heard afar’: Vesuvius, Etna and the Poetics of Depth....Pages 68-101 ‘The region of beauty and delight’: Reimagining the Polar Sublime....Pages 102-134 ‘The lone and level sands’: Romanticism and the Desert....Pages 135-173 ‘My purpose was humbler, but also higher’: Thomas De Quincey at the Final Frontier....Pages 174-190 Back Matter....Pages 191-233 Machine generated contents note: -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. 'We had hopes that pointed to the clouds': the Alps and the Poetics of Ascent -- 2. 'A volcano heard afar': Vesuvius, Etna, and the Poetics of Depth -- 3. 'The region of beauty and delight': Re-imagining the Polar Sublime -- 4. 'The lone and level sands': Romanticism and the Desert -- 5. 'My purpose was humbler, but also higher': Thomas De Quincey at the Final Frontier -- Bibliography -- Index