Timeline: Romantic Period - Literary Timeline

Jan 1, 1786

William Blake

Publishes Songs of Innocence

Jan 1, 1794

Ann Radcliff

The Mysteries of Udolpho popularizes the gothic novel.
Although not the first gothic novel ever published, it is one of the most influential. Gothic novels are known for their "spookiness." Jane Austen parodies the gothic novel in Northanger Abbey and has her main character read Radcliff's novel.

Jan 1, 1798

William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

</a>Wordsworth and Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads Etext of Lyrical Ballads In stark contrast to the poets of the Enlightenment, or Neoclassical, period who believed that poetry should be an expression of reason and logic - the poet's intellect - Wordsworth, in the preface to the Lyrical Ballads, stated, "For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" emphasizing emotion and feeling.

Period: Jan 1, 1798 to Dec 31, 1832

The Romantic Period

Norton Anthology

Jan 1, 1800

Maria Edgeworth

Castle Rockrent the first historical novel in English - satirizes the absentee landowners in Ireland

Jan 1, 1808

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust - Part 1
Heinrich Faust, a well-learned scholar, feels that, although he has extensively studied studied philosophy, medicine, law, and theology, there is something missing in his life. He turns to magic and makes a deal with the devil - Dr. Faust will be shown the secrets of the world and experience the most profound pleasure known to man in exchange for his soul.

Oct 30, 1811

Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen writes with great economy and wit. The characters in her novels are as obsessed with marriage as everyone in Regency England was - and Austen makes some of the sharpest, funniest, and most sarcastic observations on human nature of the period, most of which still apply today.