Dryden and Pope in the Early Nineteenth-Century. Amarasinghe<|

Dryden and Pope in the Early Nineteenth-CenturyA Study of Changing Literary Taste 18001830\nAuthor(s): Upali Amarasinghe\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521129206, 978-0521129206\nSynopsis\nIt is still widely believed that in 1798 English literature became 'romantic' overnight. This is not so, of course: the Lyrical Ballads appeared almost unnoticed, and for many more years the prevailing patterns of taste seemed hardly challenged by any innovations. Indeed it was only from the 1830s onwards that 'romanticism' became the new othrodoxy. Dr Amarasinghe's book studies the main plank in the platform of the old attitudes: respect for the poetry of Dryden and Pope and the associated values. He shows a curious process: a change from convinced or idolatrous endorsement of Augustan verse and thought, via the perception in Dryden and Pope of 'romantic' elements, to their eventual dismissal as 'classics.