The Suffering Traveller and the Romantic Imagination by Carl Thompson

Abstract

178 Reviews TheSuffering Traveller and the Romantic Imagination. ByCARLTHOMPSON. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 2007. xi+299 pp. ?45. ISBN 978-o-19-925998-4. Most readersfamiliar with the Romanticperiodwho open this bookwill do so in a spirit ofnovelanticipation, forthetitleseemingly indicates a slightly surprising subtheme withinRomanticismthathas been barelyexplored, and is intriguingly off centre. As one readson, thepleasurethat attendstheobliqueapproach will be reinforced by amore seriousand compellinginterest, fortheevidencepresented byCarl Thompsonand his subtle,elucidatory analysesdemand that we should reconsider therelationship ofRomanticismto travel writing. Further, we should giveserious consideration tothe proposalthat perilous, accidental, andadventurous travel is a fundamental ingredient in theRomantic imagination, and not a sideshow or a quaintdistraction. At thecentreof thisbook is thecontention that Romantic travelismarkedly different fromthenotionof tourism, and thatthe GrandTour is replacedinRo manticism byadventurous ordangeroustravel and exploration. Central,too,isthe ideaof travel as a kindofperformance: a self-dramatizing or self-fashioning that relates to a script thatmay be quite precise and material (as exemplified inplans for travel oradventure) or looseand improvisatory (as invariants basedonclassictravel texts). While thefantasy ofadventurous travel, and thesuffering it may cause,pro videsa strong motifina great manyRomantictexts, Thompsonacknowledges and describestheveryrealdangersof travel encountered in theperiod,and examines thedifferent ways inwhich the Romantictraveller consciously modifiedtheclas sic travel'scripts' to introduce notionsof spontaneity, risk, orboundary-breaking. Two examplesprovidedearlyin thebook-Coleridge's slightly crazyideaofhow to descend amountain and Byron's contemptuous disregard for travelmanuals in favour of new discoveries-epitomize this new sense of travel as the penetration of theunknown and the unpredictable. For theRomantics thisbrought to travel a new authenticity, and as the author remarks, that idea announced a new trajectorywhich continues today, a bifurcation of tourism and travel. The extenttowhich theRomantics were brought upwith travel writingsand accountsofvoyagesprovidesa richand imaginative contextinforming their own stories and self-dramatizations, and Thompson's book reminds us of just how prosperousthiseighteenth-century heritage was, and how realand startling were the feats of endurance and heroism related therein. Perhaps themost remarkable examplesbroughtforward here are theshipwreck narratives, and theRomantic fascination with these as themeans of discovering and exploring new regions of humanexperience and vision.Thompsonhas researched thisarchiveassiduously. He produces a fascinating account of the currency and nature of these narratives and their publication in the late eighteenth century, and argues convincingly that theuneasy relationship between a commentary of providentialist closure on theone hand and the existential or accidental narrative on the other provided a potent mix for theRomantics to exploit. Likewise, the narratives of the open boat (thewreck of the Medusa or theBounty mutiny, forexample) were accompanied by intense poli MLR, 104.1, 2009 179 ticalcontroversies aboutrank and rights, butalso inthemselves presented powerful metaphorsor emblems ofdemocracy. Thompsonuses these paradigmstoproduce informed and illuminating readings of suchtexts asColeridge's 'Ancient Mariner' and theshipwreck episodeinByron's Don Juan. Thompsonhaswrittena verygood book aboutRomanticism whichmakes a significant contribution toourbetter understanding of the Romanticimagination. It isnotveryoftenthat a singleideaormotif-here that ofmisadventure-canbe inserted intosucha thoroughly researched field and have sucha transformative effect. Thesuccessof this book isthatits hypothesis iscontinuously and thoroughly tested inthetexts itdiscusses, and theresults arereadings of Wordsworth andByron (inparticular) that aresimultaneously newand strongly historicized. DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY PHILIP MARTIN Dickens,Family, Authorship: Psychoanalytic Perspectives onKinshipandCreativity. By LYNN CAIN. Aldershot: Ashgate. 2008. xvii+183 pp. ?50. ISBN 970-0 7546-6180-1. LynnCain's book offers somesuggestive and richly referenced readings ofawide range ofDickens'swork.Thoughfocused on the novels producedbetween1843and 1853, MartinChuzzlewit, DombeyandSon, David Copperfield, andBleakHouse, the projectreflects on the wholeofDickens's literary career, andmakes a thorough and interesting useofhiscorrespondence duringthis period,aswellas,toa lesser extent, his journalism. Indeed,someof thestrongest arguments areadvancedthrough a cross-referential treatment of thisrangeofmaterials;in thefirst literary chapter, onMartinChuzzlewit,forexample,I found particularly instructive Cain's identi fication of theaffinities betweenthisnovelandGreatExpectations intheir shared anxieties aboutfather/son relations (p. 22),andher illumination of thealliterative andOedipal connection of 'Pecksniff andPinch',emphasizedin Dickens'sreference tothis pairingina letter toForster(p.42). The psychoanalytic perspectives certainly open up some interesting interpre tations, which respondto an impressively substantial bodyof classicand recent Dickens criticism, which is takenseriously throughout. I particularly enjoyedthe reflections uponDickens'suseofthe gamut ofauthorial metaphors(including archi tecture, music,gastronomy, andbiologicalreproduction) that this methodopensup. Thereis,however, a persistent, uncomfortable sensethat, despitetheacknowledged complexity ofDickens's literary projects, Cain especially valueshiswork forits anticipation of twentieth-century psychoanalytic theory, particularly that ofFreud, Lacan,Klein, andKristeva.Cain is characteristically...