Romanticism and the Rural Community

Romanticism and the Rural Community investigates the representation of the rural village and country town in a range of Romantic texts. The proper organisation of rural communities was central to political and social debates at the turn of the eighteenth century, and featured strongly in 1790s political polemic. This book considers works by Jane Austen, Robert Burns, John Clare and William Wordsworth, as well as less well-known writers (Robert Bloomfield, George Crabbe and Ebenezer Elliott). It is informed by ideas derived from recent study of communitarian social development and the role of human links and networks in sustaining adaptable community structures. Through its focus on the search for local solutions to what were perceived to be large-scale or national problems of sustainability, the book is relevant to recent developments in eco-criticism within Romantic studies. It also links into the ongoing contemporary debate about the make-up and function of rural communities.

Simon White is an AHRC Early-Career Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Romantic Literature at Oxford Brookes University, UK. His previous publications include Robert Bloomfield, Romanticism and the Poetry of Community (2007) and essays on Bloomfield, John Clare, Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Hardy in leading academic journals. He is currently writing a book on witchcraft and magic in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century regional fiction.

Introduction
1. The Cottager and 1790s Political Polemic
2. Wordsworth and Community
3. The Gentry and Farming in Jane Austen's Fiction
4. George Crabbe and the Architecture of the Parish
5. Agrarian Reform and the Community in Burns
6. Ebenezer Elliott, the Industrial Revolution and the Rural Village
Epilogue
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index