This volume in the celebrated Cambridge History of Literary Criticism series addresses literary criticism of the Romantic period, chiefly in Europe. Its seventeen chapters are by internationally-respected academics and explore a range of key topics and themes. The coverage of the book, focusing on themes and genres but drawing in discussion of the key authors, has made the hardback edition the standard reference work on the period c.1780–c.1830. These remain in many ways the formative years for modern Anglo-American as well as European literary history.

Introduction; 1. Classical standards in the Romantic period Paul H. Fry; 2. Innovation and modernity Alfredo De Paz (trans. Albert Sbragia); 3. The French Revolution David Simpson; 4. Transcendental philosophy and romantic criticism David Simpson; 5. Nature Helmut J. Schneider; 6. Scientific models Joel Black; 7. Religion and literature E. S. Shaffer; 8. Romantic language theory and the art of understanding Kurt Mueller-Vollmer; 9. The Romantic transformation of rhetoric David Wellbery; 10. Romantic irony Gary Handwerk; 11. Theories of genre Tilottama Rajan; 12. Theory of the novel Marshall Brown; 13. The impact of Shakespeare Jonathan Arac; 14. The vocation of criticism and the crisis of the republic of letters Jon Klancher; 15. Women, gender, and literary criticism Theresa M. Kelley; 16. Literary history and historicism David Perkins; 17. Literature and the other arts Herbert Lindenberger; Bibliography; Index.