Addressing both a revolution in esthetics and an important development in the history of thought, Claudia Moscovici argues that in its break from the Enlightenment, Romanticism promoted core values such as verisimilitude, expressivity, and sensuality, that have become an important postromantic opposition - in our contemporary visual arts, especially - to Modernism and postmodernism. The discussion is fresh and engaging.

Marshall C. Olds, Willa Cather Professor and Professor of Modern Languages, University of Nebraska

In Romanticism and Postromanticism, Claudia Moscovici writes that "art criticism, like philosophy, like love itself, depends upon cultivating a lucid passion." This book, which brings a breath of fresh air to the study of enduring themes, is the lucid, engaging result of Moscovici's own passion for literature, philosophy, and art. And it is much more, an enthusiastic appeal to eize the day, to live life to the fullest, complete with a manifesto and a roster of artists who epitomize the aspirations of the postromantic movement.

William C. Carter, Distinguished Professor of French, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Claudia Moscovici is a historian of ideas, astute reader of literature, and sensitive interpreter of art. Her unusual, original book, vividly written, solidly researched, is both academically sound and passionately committed. Lucid chapters on Rousseau, Mme de Staël, Diderot, Wordsworth and Baudelaire define the aesthetics, ethics, and epistemology of the movement she calls postromanticism, alive today. Exciting to read.

Edward K. Kaplan, Kaiserman Professor in the Humanities, Brandeis University