The Spirit of Romance
Title page, first edition
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| Author | Ezra Pound |
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| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Literary criticism |
| Publisher | J. M. Dent and Sons |
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Publication date
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1910 |
| OCLC | 228697091 |
| LC Class | PN681.P6 |
The Spirit of Romance is a 1910 book of literary criticism by the poet Ezra Pound. It is based on lectures he delivered at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London between 1908 and 1909 and deals with a variety of European literatures. As with Pound's later, unfinished poem The Cantos, the book follows "a pattern, at once historical and atemporal, of cultural beginnings and rebeginnings".
Written as a contradiction to the nationalistic and normative literary studies of the time, in The Spirit of Romance Pound advocates a synchronous scholarship of literature in which one can weigh "Theocritus and Yeats with one balance". In his discussion, Pound provides partial translations of works from a variety of European authors, including Guido Cavalcanti and François Villon, many of whom had been forced outside the canon by earlier critics.
The Spirit of Romance was published by London-based J. M. Dent and Sons, upon recommendation from Pound's friend Ernest Rhys. A 1932 printing saw the addition of an eleventh chapter, and a "completely revised edition" followed in 1952. Though reviews were sparse when the book was first published, The Spirit of Romance has since become an important addition to literary scholarship.
The Spirit of Romance was written by Ezra Pound (1885–1972), his first major work of literary criticism. Interested in poetry at an early age, Pound obtained a B.Phil. from Hamilton College in 1905. He continued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his MA in 1906. Pound was awarded a Harrison fellowship soon after graduation to continue his studies and complete a doctoral degree. Intending to write about jesters in the works of Lope de Vega, the outspoken Pound – who often challenged his professors' assertions, insisting that George Bernard Shaw was a better writer than Shakespeare – was eventually told that he was wasting his own time and that of the institution and left the university, his doctorate incomplete. In 1908 he left on a self-imposed exile to Europe, passing through Gibraltar and Venice before settling in London. There, whilst working on his poetry, he gave a series of lectures at the Regent Street Polytechnic; these lectures eventually became the basis of The Spirit of Romance.
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