Books : Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville
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by: David S. Reynolds
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 810.9003
EAN: 9780674065659
ISBN: 0674065654
Label: Harvard University Press
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 640
Publication Date: 1989-10
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Sales Rank: 667752
Studio: Harvard University Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In this landmark work, the seven great writers of the American Renaissance--Emerson, Thoreau, Writman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson--are examined together in their cultural contexts. David Reynolds reveals how these authors broadly assimilated the themes and images of popular culture. Their classic works--among them Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Leaves of Grass, Walden, and the tales of Poe--are given strikingly original reading when viewed against the rich, often startling background of long neglected popular writings of the time.
Reynolds also explores a whole lost world of sensational literature, including grisly novels, openly sold on the street, that combined intense violence with explicit eroticism. He demonstrates as well how common concerns with issues of religion, slavery, and workers' (as well as women's) rights resonate in the major writings.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Enlightening book about some of America's greatest authors
David Reynolds presents in this book the "subversive" underpinnings of the works of some of America's greatest authors: Melville, Whitman, Hawthorne, Poe, as well as, to a lesser extent, Thoreau and Emerson. As a "fan" of these authors, I discovered many things about the context in which their writings fit, and that help better understand exactly why these authors wrote about what they did.
Reynolds is an excellent author, though the book is a bit slow-going at times (hence my 4 starts ... Read More
Rating: - New Perspective on American Classic Literary Tradition
Truly well-thought, researched, and rendered. Reynolds grounds his literary analysis in a vivid sense of the transition from the Republic toward the corporate industrial era, explicating the dynamics of our vital tradition.
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