The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Romantic Revolution

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In the introduction of The Romantic Revolution, the author, Tim Blanning states that he intends ‘to identify the most striking characteristics of the romantic revolution and to illustrate them’ . To those who have studied or have a particular interest in the arts of the romantic period may have found this book easy and exciting to read, but to those unfamiliar with the origins and works of the romantic period this text was most likely viewed as boring and indecipherable. It is clear that Blanning has in fact identified the characteristics of the romantic revolution but it is somewhat unclear how he has illustrated them. This book is aimed at an academic audience as Blanning refers to significant works and events of the romantic period as if the reader should be familiar with them rather than explaining them. This book seems to be written not to educate the reader but to interest them.
The strengths and weaknesses of this may vary for some people. For somebody who is not familiar with Romanticism it is likely that they will be able to list more weaknesses than strengths as oppsed to those with a great knowledge of that period. One strength is that the book is very detailed and offers a litany of romantic figures and their works usually with quotes and sometimes an excerpt of the text. Another strength of this work is that Blanning has managed to give such an informative account of the Romantic revolution in three chapters and less than 180 words. Jonathan Bate says of

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