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Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self
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About This Book
From the best-selling author of The Invention of Nature comes an exhilarating story about a remarkable group of young rebels--poets, novelists, philosophers--who, through their epic quarrels, passionate love stories, heartbreaking grief, and radical ideas launched Romanticism onto the world stage, inspiring some of the greatest thinkers of the time. When did we begin to be as self-centered as we are today? At what point did we expect to have the right to determine our own lives? When did we first ask the question, How can I be free? It all began in a quiet university town in Germany in the 1790s, when a group of playwrights, poets, and writers put the self at center stage in their thinking, their writing, and their lives. This brilliant circle included the famous poets Goethe, Schiller, and Novalis; the visionary philosophers Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel; the contentious Schlegel brothers; and, in a wonderful cameo, Alexander von Humboldt. And at the heart of this group was the formidable Caroline Schlegel, who sparked their dazzling conversations about the self, nature, identity, and freedom. The French revolutionaries may have changed the political landscape of Europe, but the young Romantics incited a revolution of the mind that transformed our world forever. We are still empowered by their daring leap into the self, and by their radical notions of the creative potential of the individual, the highest aspirations of art and science, the unity of nature, and the true meaning of freedom. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfillment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our responsibilities toward our community and future generations. At the heart of this inspiring book is the extremely modern tension between the dangers of selfishness and the thrilling possibilities of free will.
Reviews
"Wulf pays particular attention to the cohort's oft-overlooked female members, including Caroline Böhmer-Schlegel-Schelling, a free-spirited intellectual with a 'core of steel' whose "refus[al] to be restricted by the role that society had intended for women" landed her in prison, among other controversies."
"Still, familiarity sets its own limits."
"There's the handsome young poet in love with a sickly pubescent girl; the brilliant woman whose literary work was credited to the men in her life; the passionate friendships shattered into fierce feuds."
"Wulf makes excellent use of the vast correspondence of her principals."
"An illuminating exploration of the life of the mind and the sometimes-fraught production of art."
"Wulf's Romantics are erudite, prolific, original, courageously revolutionary — but they are also narcissistic, self-serving, vain, entitled, reckless, and feckless ..."
"But as Wulf's nimble storytelling vividly shows, part of what made the Romantics so fascinating and maddening was their refusal to be pinned down."
"Wulf writes clear, flowing prose, which is a pleasure to read."
"Wulf is excellent at this kind of descriptive prose, evoking the sights and sounds of the city with an almost classical enargia."
"It is as much a novelettish portrait of disappointing soups, foundering marriages and professorial concert going as it is a panorama of what the poet Novalis described as the set's ambition 'to romanticise the entire world' ..."
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