Satire and Romanticism. By Steven E. Jones. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. Pp. x + 262; 5 illustrations. $49.95.

Satire and Romanticism points out, in a lucid, original, and convincing way, "the constructive and ultimately canon-forming relationship between satire and Romantic modes of writing " (p. 1). Steven E. Jones points out that "if Romantic poetry is defined as vatic or prophetic, inward-turning, sentimental, idealizing, sublime, and reaching for transcendence—even in its ironies—then satire, with its socially encoded, public, profane, and tendentious rhetoric, is bound to be cast in the role of generic other, as the un-Romantic mode " (p. 3). Acknowledging the valuable work on that topic by Jerome McGann, Marilyn Butler, Gary Dyer, and others, Satire and Romanticism explores that dialectical relationship deeply, subtly, and specifically, showing the relatedness (rather than simple otherness) of satire and Romanticism and situating their conflicted but intimate relations in a large field of literary history in which movements including Romanticism are "artifacts of reception history " (p. 6). The definitional contexts that Jones prefers for satire and Romanticism alike are public (including gag laws and radical anger). Seven chapters marshal specific evidence and sometimes detailed analysis to show that "Romantic works are influenced by, infected with, and enfold within themselves examples of satiric writing " (p. 10). Rather than its incommensurable other, Romanticism is "counter-satiric writing " (p. 12).

Terence Hoagwood
Texas A&M University