Byron and the Rhetoric of Italian Nationalism / Nineteenth-Century Major Lives and Letters (PDF)

ARNOLD A. SCHMIDT, Professor of English at California State University, Stanislaus, USA.

"Most books on Byron's life in Italy, or on the writing he did there, or what we may call his Italian afterfame are inevitably incomplete. This study covers a huge range of subjects and is informative and groundbreaking on just about everything it takes up. I feel I learned from every page. - John Clubbe, President of the International Byron Society in presenting the Elma Dangerfield award

"Arnold Anthony Schmidt's study shows anglophone readers the crucial if not paradoxical role played by the Byron myth in the Risorgimento. In Greece, nationalism grew from the Christian identity of the peoples ruled by Turks. In Italy, however, religion fragmented oppositional politics, and Byronic Romanticism highlighted the differences between secularist and Catholic liberalism. Byron was denounced as 'a curse to the whole of Europe' by the Catholic theologian Vincenzo Gioberti, who strenuously opposed the poet's canonization by the Risorgimento . . . there is much to be grateful for in this original and scholarly study." - The Times Literary Supplement

"Arnold Anthony Schmidt's Byron and the Rhetoric of Italian Nationalism goes a long way toward elucidating the many aspects of Byron's immersion in Italian life. As much social and cultural history as literary criticism, it manifests an impressive range of reading and allusions . . . Historical and contextual scholarship at its best.' Wordsworth Circle

"A rewarding, well-written and important contribution to Byron studies." - Byron Journal

"Presenting historical and literary material in a concise, readable style...the combination of careful research and perceptive criticism makes this book a valuable addition to Byron studies and to our understanding of the promise and the problems of Italian nationalism." - Italian Quarterly

"Covers an impressively wide range of important materials and authors and brings into sharp focus the complex ideological underpinnings which beset the discourses