Chapter 15. Eternal problems

Abstract

This chapter contends that literatures cannot solely be considered within national frameworks. This is illustrated by a case study of the transnational dimensions of Stendhal’s work in British Late-Romantic literary magazines. The Late-Romantic period is often seen as an insular, self-reflexive period within British Romanticism. Evidence shows, however, that it was a truly international period with literature continually crossing the channel in different forms. Three of the major literary magazines of the period played an important role in this transnational literary exchange: The New Monthly Magazine, the London Magazine, and Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. This article focuses on the polemical, competitive, and ideological struggles between the three magazines, exemplified in the way they treated the French author Stendhal, through translation and reception.