Anglo-German Interactions in the Literature of the 1890s

This is a study of what the main 'aesthetic' writers of late nineteenth-century Britain made of German literature, and of how Germany in turn reacted to them. The impact of Anglo-Scottish art nouveau in fin-de-siecle Austria and Germany made it predictable that Keats, Pater and Rossetti, among others, would be well received, but no one could have known in advance that by the time of their deaths Swinburne and Wilde would be more highly regarded in germany that in Britain. Bridgwater's lucid and thoroughly documented study casts new light on the the central cultural issues of hte day, including ideas of mortality, truth, and subjectivism in art, comparing Pater and Wilde with Nietzche, and George Moore, that chameleon of the decadent nineties, with Schopenhauer. Patrick Bridgwater, Emeritus Professor of German in the University of Durham, is known for his books on Anglo-German literary relations, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Kafka and Expressionism.