Critique de Choice

Eisner (George Mason Univ.) looks at the role of fame in the poetry of 19th-century poets such as Byron, Keats, Shelley, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Thanks to rapidly developing media technologies of the day, he argues, these writers enjoyed, or at least anticipated, some notoriety in their lifetimes. Though many scholars have contended the poets held themselves above the mass culture of their day, Eisner describes them as celebrities keenly aware of the fandom they inspired. In this account, the relationship between the well-known writer and his or her audience becomes a defining thematic and formal concern in 19th-century verse. A strong point is the inclusion of historically relevant literary celebrities such as Letitia Landon. Though this reading has some validity, in studiously promoting his main thesis Eisner produces a set of interpretations that often seem forced. In part, this is due to his failure to balance his treatment against other credible readings of issues such as Shelley's and Byron's glamorization of themselves as characters in their poems. Also, a fuller treatment of the relevant cultural history would have strengthened the discussion. Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. R. K. Mookerjee Eugene Lang College, The New School for the Liberal Arts