direct experience of the Napoleonic regime and of Europe at war. He watched Moscow go up in flames, took part in the French forces' retreat from Russia, and helped organize the military defence of the province of Dauphiné back in France. In 1814, when the French empire fell, he decided to settle in Italy. But the more authentic Stendhal is to be found elsewhere, and above all in a cluster of favourite ideas: the hostility to the concept of "ideal beauty," the notion of modernity, and the exaltation of energy, passion, and spontaneity. His personal philosophy, to which he himself gave the name of "Beylisme" (after his real family name, Beyle) stressed the importance of the "pursuit of happiness" by combining enthusiasm with rational skepticism, lucidity with willful surrender to lyric emotions. "Beylisme," as he understood it, meant cultivating a private sensibility while developing the art of hiding and protecting it. Charterhouse of Parma is Stendhal's other masterpiece
Outcomes: · Revolution did not bring welfare · Lives of the lower-classes worsened · Extended the distance between the lower and upper class · The rich got richer, the poor got poorer 2. Romanticism is a reaction against classicism, science and atomic (aesthetic ideal of order and unity) worldview. Romantic ideal is the organic world. Romanticism: · Returns to nature and belief in the goodness of mankind · Exaltation of the senses and emotion overcome reason and intellect is the time when novels became more important · Imagination is very important, it is a God-like creator (W. Blake: "I know that this world is a World of Imagination and Vision") 3. Romantic image of the poet The poet was a learned man who also knew how to appreciate nature. He was in spiritual marriage between the mind and the external world. Poets believed that emotions were universal and almost inexpressible
Themes Many of the poems in this collection are a celebration of America its landscape, its people and democratic principles on which it was founded. The poet himself is the subject of other poems in which he explores his own feelings, perceptions and intuitions, and his task as a poet of giving voice to his people. He also deals with physical love and the celebration of the body. His frank openness about sexual matters and his exaltation of both male and female body shocked contemporary audiences. Reputation At the time of its first publication in 1855, only a handful of intellectuals expressed favourable opinions about Leaves of Grass. The average reader was shocked and outraged both by Whitman's innovative form and controversial content. In many respects he was half a century before his time. The changes in social and lit attitudes which took place towards the turn of the cent led to a reappraisal of his work
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