Thursday, October 11, 2007

1818 to 1820

Literature
Nightmare Abbey. Thomas Love Peacock. British. 1818. Novel. Satirizes leading figures and concepts of romanticism in England.

Society
1819. Spain cedes eastern Florida and all its possessions east of the Mississippi to the U.S.

1819. Unitarianism is founded by Boston Congregationalist pastor William Ellery Channing who becomes the leader of a group that denies the holiness of the Trinity and believes in only one Divine Being.

1819. The University of Virginia is chartered at Charlottesville, 3 miles west of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate. The ex-president has been instrumental in obtaining the charter and is planning the grounds, buildings and curriculum of the new university.

Literature
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Washington Irving. American. 1819. Sketches. Sketches of English landscape and culture. Contains "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle."

"Rip Van Winkle." Washington Irving. American. 1819. Story. Falls asleep before the Revolution and 20 years later wakes up. Contrast between the new and old societies.

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Washington Irving. American. 1819. Story. Brom Bones masquerades as the headless horseman and scares the schoolmaster out of town.

"Ode to a Nightingale." John Keats. British. 1819. Poetry. Feeling of melancholy because of mortality, but the bird's song is immortal.

Bride of Lammermoor. Sir Walter Scott. British. 1819. Novel. Lucy Ashton. Her father ruins Ravenswood whose son Edgar falls in love with Lucy. Forced to marry someone else, she murders her husband and dies of convulsions. Distraught, Edgar dies in quicksand on his way to a duel. Historic incident.

"The Eve of St. Agnes." John Keats. British. 1819. Poetry. Legend that on the Eve of St. Agnes, maidens are allowed a glimpse of their future husbands. Sensuous imagery.

"Ode to a Grecian Urn." John Keats. British. 1819. Poetry. Perfection and timelessness of art contrasted to living world of change.

Ivanhoe. Sir Walter Scott. British. 1819. Novel. Post-Norman conquest. Saxons vs. Normans. Real heroine is a Jewess, Rebecca. Richard I. Robin Hood. Chivalry. Tournament.

"La Belle Dame sans Merci." John Keats. British. 1819. Poetry. Taken from an early French poem by Alain Chartier. Medieval imagery.

Don Juan. Lord Byron. British. 1819/24. Satiric Poetry. World-wide adventures. Digressions on wealth, power, society, chastity, poets, diplomats, England. Incomplete.

Society
1820. Britain's George III dies, succeeded by George IV.

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