The early nineteenth century's cultural explosion owed much of its excitement to the battle between two opposing artistic camps. Fading Romanticism and youthful Classicism were throwing punches, and Goethe felt the tug of both sides. He considered both angles: the humanistic force of Romanticism h

Dickens saw London with dirty eyes. Colored by the Industrial Revolution's residual grime, his vision was thick with haze and factory smoke. He portrayed London's hovels, its drinking dens and shipyards, lodging houses and debtors' prisons, with hard-won insight. The author crept through London's