Title: The romance of Italy and the English political imagination
First published: 1998
Description: In blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction, diplomats and travelers, and English and Italian concepts of nation, Maura O'Connor shows us the extent to which imagination, pleasure, and politics were intimately interwoven in the English middle-class's fascination with the Italian peninsula from the early 1800s through the 1860s.

O'Connor uses a variety of sources, ranging from travel writings and the popular press to diplomatic dispatches and official correspondence, to illustrate how influential the romance of Italy was to the bourgeois, liberal, and, above all, English social order during a time when class society was undergoing reconfiguration.
Subjects: British, British Foreign public opinion, Civilization, English National characteristics, Foreign public opinion, British, History, Italian influences, National characteristics, English, Politics and government, Public opinion, Relations, Great britain, relations, foreign countries, Italy, politics and government, Public opinion, great britain, Great britain, civilization, Italy, relations, foreign countries, Travel
Places: England, Great Britain, Italy
Time periods: 1789-1870, 19th century
LC classification: DA47.9.I8 O25 1998