English Romanticism and the Celtic World explores the way in which British Romantic writers responded to the national and cultural identities of the 'four nations' England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The essays collected here, by specialists in the field, interrogate the cultural centres as well as the peripheries of Romanticism, and the interactions between these. They underline 'Celticism' as an emergent strand of cultural ethnicity during the eighteenth century, examining the constructions of Celticness and Britishness in the Romantic period, including the ways in which the 'Celtic' countries viewed themselves in the light of Romanticism. Other topics include the development of Welsh antiquarianism, the Ossian controversy, Irish nationalism, Celtic landscapes, Romantic form and Orientalism. The collection covers writing by Blake, Wordsworth, Scott, Byron and Shelley, and will be of interest to scholars of Romanticism and Celtic studies.

Review of the hardback: 'This is an excellent collection of learned essays that I am sure every scholar with an interest in British Romanticism will find illuminating and provocative … it will undoubtedly provoke further research, hopefully of the exemplary standard present throughout.' The Byron Journal

Gerard Carruthers is Lecturer in Scottish literature in the School of English at the University of Glasgow. He has co-edited (with Alison Lumsden) Reliquiae Trotcosienses (2002) and (with David Goldie and Alastair Renfrew) Beyond Scotland: New Contexts for Twentieth Century Scottish Literature (2002). Alan Rawes is Senior Lecturer in English at Canterbury Christ Church University College. He is the author of Byron's Poetic Experimentation and co-editor of Romantic Biography.