Overview

In Liberal Epic, Edward Adams examines the liberal imagination's centuries-long dependence on contradictory, and mutually constitutive, attitudes toward violent domination. Adams centers his ambitious analysis on a series of major epic poems, histories, and historical novels, including Dryden's Aeneid, Pope's Iliad, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Byron's Don Juan, Scott's Life of Napoleon, Napier's History of the War in the Peninsula, Macaulay's History of England, Hardy's Dynasts, and Churchill's military histories--works that rank among the most important publishing events of the past three centuries yet that have seldom received critical attention relative to their importance. In recovering these neglected works and gathering them together as part of a self-conscious literary tradition here defined as liberal epic, Adams provides an archaeology that sheds light on contemporary issues such as the relation of liberalism to war, the tactics for sanitizing heroism, and the appeal of violence to supposedly humane readers. Victorian Literature and Culture Series

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9780813931456

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Reviews

<p> This is a very substantial and original piece of work, which makes a striking contribution to the history of epic in the modern world and extends the significance of its topic in ambitious ways -- indeed, way beyond the 'Victorian' era signaled in its title. The author sets out to trace a particular history from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the contemporary moment, a history centered on the representation of battlefield violence. Such a project requires a massive extension of the canon of 'epic' to include not only those extended narrative poems that have traditionally earned the title but also all the great historical narrative accounts of wars and warfare. The result is an extraordinary scholarly achievement and will appeal to all those who teach classes on the poetry of war and on its historiography. --Simon Dentith, University of Reading

<p> This is a very substantial and original piece of work, which makes a striking contribution to the history of epic in the modern world andextends the significance of its topic in ambitious ways -- indeed, way beyond the'Victorian' era signaled in its title. The author sets out to trace a particularhistory from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the contemporary moment, ahistory centered on the representation of battlefield violence. Such a projectrequires a massive extension of the canon of 'epic' to include not only thoseextended narrative poems that have traditionally earned the title but also all thegreat historical narrative accounts of wars and warfare. The result is anextraordinary scholarly achievement and will appeal to all those who teach classeson the poetry of war and on its historiography. --Simon Dentith, University of Reading

Author Information

Edward Adams is Associate Professor of English at Washington and Lee University.

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