Overview

The Artistry of Exile is a new reading of one of the most important themes of nineteenth-century literature. Exile represents a crisis in the always present tension between self and culture, the disturbance of memory, the quest for home, and the survival or not of life's heart quakes -- all of which became identifying features of canonical Romanticism. Focusing on two interlinked groups of writers who, for various reasons, felt cast out of England and sought refuge in Italy, this book traces the material and metaphoric dynamics of distance in poems, novels and epistolary conversations. The book brings into dialogue the self-alienation and existential antagonism of the Cain figure with the contingencies of real travel: conversations about writing desks, lost parcels of books, missing pans and stray camels. Domestic and cosmic perspectives mingle as the book reveals how writers realize the full resonance of Dante's vivid summation of exile in the taste of different bread and the difficulty of another man's stairs. As a country that only exists in the early nineteenth-century as a memory, Italy both embodies and energises formal attempts to bridge the distance created by exile in the work of the Byron-Shelley circle and the later Barrett-Browning- Browning collaboration. Examining these writers in relation to Italian art, sound, religion, narrative art and history, the book presents a new perspective on Romantic canonicity and relocates contemporary ideas of cosmopolitanism in the aesthetic, ethical and political debates of the late Romantic and early Victorian world.

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9780199590247

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Reviews

Plainly the result of years of scholarly devotion and intellectual labour, and likely to make a permanent mark in this field of study. * Times Literary Supplement * This is a rich and sophisticated treatment of an important segment of nineteenth-century literature ... a marvel of erudition. * Richard Lansdown, Review 19 * Stabler's style is to hop about from thought to thought, allusion to allusion; the pages of The Artistry of Exile are populated by many poets, many travellers, many critics, many periods. The effect is at times appealing and enchanting. * Charlotte Mitchell, The Times Literary Supplement * [A] standout book ... The method of this incandescently intelligent book is deeply literary ... especially excellent on women writers in exile. * Adela Pinch, Studies in English Literature * [Jane Stabler's] wide-ranging discussion reflects in particular on the aesthetics of writing in exile * Jane Darcy, The Times Higher Education * Elegantly lucid, informed, attentive to all sorts of textual details and the contexts from which they emerged, sophisticated, nuanced and original in its handling of the artistry of writing while also warmly human in its appreciation of the experiences in which that artistry is rooted, it is simultaneously an education and a pleasure to read. * Alan Rawes, Byron Journal * Stabler succeeds at presenting the nuances of nineteenth-century exile in Italy and how the experience greatly affected these writers' multiple aesthetic endeavors. * Omar F. Miranda, BARS Review * Marshalling a variety of materials into an organic structure, her volume fully succeeds in capturing the textual and experiential intricacies of being in another country and 'in another language' for Romantic and Victorian writers in Italy ... A highly rewarding read, The Artistry of Exile is further evidence of Stabler's ability to offer engaging and timely research about central aspects of nineteenth-century literature and culture. As it opens up new insights into Romantic and Victorian experiences in Italy, it throws light on the body of intermediate, transcultural and transitional writing that emerged from them, and confirms the status of these transcriptions of displacement as sources of endless literary and cultural fascination. * Diego Saglia, Universita degli Studi di Parma * tour de force * Maria Schoina, European Romantic Review *

Stabler's style is to ho about from thought to thought, allusion to allusion; the pages of The Artistry of Exile are populated by mnay poets, many travellers, many critics, many periods. The effect is at times appealing and enchanting. Charlottte Mitchell, The Time Literary Supplement Her [Jane Stabler] wide-ranging discussion reflects in particular on the aesthetics of writing in exile Jane Darcy, The Times Higher Education

Her [Jane Stabler] wide-ranging discussion reflects in particular on the aesthetics of writing in exile Jane Darcy, The Times Higher Education

Plainly the result of years of scholarly devotion and intellectual labour, and likely to make a permanent mark in this field of study. * Times Literary Supplement * This is a rich and sophisticated treatment of an important segment of nineteenth-century literature ... a marvel of erudition. * Richard Lansdown, Review 19 * Stabler's style is to hop about from thought to thought, allusion to allusion; the pages of The Artistry of Exile are populated by many poets, many travellers, many critics, many periods. The effect is at times appealing and enchanting. * Charlotte Mitchell, The Times Literary Supplement * [A] standout book ... The method of this incandescently intelligent book is deeply literary ... especially excellent on women writers in exile. * Adela Pinch, Studies in English Literature * [Jane Stabler's] wide-ranging discussion reflects in particular on the aesthetics of writing in exile * Jane Darcy, The Times Higher Education * Elegantly lucid, informed, attentive to all sorts of textual details and the contexts from which they emerged, sophisticated, nuanced and original in its handling of the artistry of writing while also warmly human in its appreciation of the experiences in which that artistry is rooted, it is simultaneously an education and a pleasure to read. * Alan Rawes, Byron Journal * Stabler succeeds at presenting the nuances of nineteenth-century exile in Italy and how the experience greatly affected these writers' multiple aesthetic endeavors. * Omar F. Miranda, BARS Review * Marshalling a variety of materials into an organic structure, her volume fully succeeds in capturing the textual and experiential intricacies of being in another country and 'in another language' for Romantic and Victorian writers in Italy ... A highly rewarding read, The Artistry of Exile is further evidence of Stabler's ability to offer engaging and timely research about central aspects of nineteenth-century literature and culture. As it opens up new insights into Romantic and Victorian experiences in Italy, it throws light on the body of intermediate, transcultural and transitional writing that emerged from them, and confirms the status of these transcriptions of displacement as sources of endless literary and cultural fascination. * Diego Saglia, Universita degli Studi di Parma * tour de force * Maria Schoina, European Romantic Review *

Author Information

Dr Jane Stabler teaches at the School of English, University of St Andrews. She is the author of Byron Poetics and History (2002), and is working on the 7-volume Longman Annotated English Poets Edition of Lord Byron's poetry.

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