The Triumph of Imperfection: The Silver Age of Sociocultural Moderation in Europe, 1815-1848 by Virgil Nemoianu

Abstract

826 Reviews identitieswhere a nation state is lacking,Germany merits the attention of a number of scholars, including Roger Paulin, who discusses German Romantic fiction, and Thomas Pfau, whose analysis ofGerman Idealism isparticularly rewarding. France too iswell represented with essays including Fabienne Moore's thoughtful piece on early French Romanticism and Barbara T. Cooper's discussion of French Romantic drama. Italy,Spain, and Poland also feature,with Derek Flitter's discussion of Span ishRomanticism particularly welcome, highlighting the value and complexity of a chapter often ignored inSpain's literaryhistory.Other essays focus on genre, an ap proach which underlines thevariety and interdisciplinarity of the age. Areas covered include the ode, the fragment, opera, and song. Each has an overarching approach which complements those studies which centre on country-specific genres such as the Romantic fairy tale or German Romantic drama. Finally, several essays are devoted to key philosophical concepts, either contemporary or retrospectively interpretative. For example, Virgil Nemoianu offers a fruitfuldiscussion of the concept of sacrality in the aesthetic framework of early Romanticism, while Diego Saglia examines the tendency towards orientalism. Michael Ferber has done a splendid job inassembling this collection of essays. The volume enhances earlier collections such as Romanticism inNational Context, ed. by Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, I988), in broadening the scope of discussion to encompass theRomantic age in all itsmany guises. The collection iswell structured and well conceived and will prove a useful tool forscholars in any number of disciplines. UNIVERSITY OF WALES BANGOR CAROL TULLY The Triumph of Imperfection: The Silver Age of Sociocultural Moderation inEurope, 18I5-I848. By VIRGIL NEMOIANU. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. 2006. xiv+258 pp. $39.95. ISBN 978-1-57003-593-7. In this thought-provoking and erudite volume, the author returns to the discussion of the role ofRomanticism and itsplace in the emergence ofmodern thoughtwhich was presented in his highly acclaimed study The Taming ofRomanticism: European Literature and theAge ofBiedermeier (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, I985). This study shifts the focus away from the literary canon to focus instead on the periphery,with textual examples taken from a diverse range of forms, including travel writing, historiography, and religious tracts.Before embarking on his argument, Nemoianu outlines the development of his own thought,which has brought him to the conclusion that, rather than representing a set of attitudes based on establishing difference, 'in thebest romanticwriting we recognize a certain complementarity with "traditional" literature' (p. ix). It is this, rather than their radicality,which ensures the longevity of reputations such as those enjoyed byGoethe, Scott, and Chateaubriand. Reiterating his argument from i985, he establishes two 'periods' ofRomanticism (a defence of the validity of such periodization appears later in the volume), the first, thatof a high Romanticism from I790 to I8 I5, the second, a lowRomanticism from I8 I5 to I848.While the formershaped a series of landscape-changing ideas, the latter emphasized instead a less confontational 'creative continuity' (p. x). The validity of this second wave is underlined, as Nemoianu points out, by the very fact that even themore radical proponents of the earlier group themselves resorted to a traditional canon (Dante, Cervantes, and others) in search of paradigms. The current volume explores the strategies adopted by theeducated middle classes in coming to termswith the novelty ofmodernity while seeking tomaintain aspects of thepast. The author is in search of 'categories', 'intellectual vehicles', 'intertextu alities of discourse', and 'structuralmeans' (p. x). His search takes him on a journey MLR, 102.3, 2007 827 through thework of a variety of authors and a plethora of cultures in a bold intel lectual expedition to themargins of the age. The result is a fascinating read which, despite a tendency todigression, draws the reader into a complex and well-argued de bate. The material covered ranges from thecanonical-Goethe's laterworks, Faust II and Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre-to discussions of historical narrative,multicul turalism, sacrality, and psychological geography which acknowledge contemporary debates inboth western and eastern Europe. The volume falls into four parts, three ofwhich have a thematic focus ('Center, Margin, Absence', 'History: From Politics toReligion', and 'Information: The Moderating Force') which carries the author's argument towards the conclusions...