Romantic Genius : The Prehistory of a Homosexual Role

Surprisingly little has been written about homosexuality in British Romantic writing, and, similarly, little discussion has emerged about homosexual themes in the lives and poetic careers of the major Romantics. In Romantic Genius, Andrew Elfenbein explores the correspondence between the stereotypes applied to the "genius" and those applied to the homosexual, showing the centrality of disreputable desires to the works of Romantic male authors -- from William Beckford to Samuel Taylor Coleridge to William Blake -- as well as to the writings of lesser-known but equally significant female authors of the period.

Andrew Elfenbein is associate professor of English at the University of Minnesota--Twin Cities.