The Reactionary Revolution: The Catholic Revival In French Literature 1870/1914
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: 1st ed.,
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: in good condition. Page Condition: Good. Markings: No visible markings. Binding: Firm and intact.
A landmark work of literary and cultural history, The Reactionary Revolution chronicles the powerful Catholic literary renaissance that swept through France between 1870 and 1914. Richard Griffiths presents a rigorous and illuminating analysis of the spiritual and aesthetic motivations that drove writers such as Huysmans, Bloy, Claudel, and Péguy to reject the secular rationalism of their age in favour of a fervent, often mystical Catholicism. The study argues that this religious revival was not a passive retreat from modernity but an active, polemical assault on the values of the Third Republic, driven by an intense longing for a transcendent order. Griffiths details how these writers shaped a distinctive literary aesthetic rooted in medievalism, mysticism, and counter-revolutionary politics, leaving a profound and complex legacy on twentieth-century French thought. Authoritative in scope and elegant in execution, this volume remains an essential reference for students of French literature, religious history, and European intellectual culture.
Author: Richard Griffiths
Format: Hardback
Published: 1966, Constable
Genre: Literary theory
Edition: 1st ed.,
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good. Jacket: in good condition. Page Condition: Good. Markings: No visible markings. Binding: Firm and intact.
A landmark work of literary and cultural history, The Reactionary Revolution chronicles the powerful Catholic literary renaissance that swept through France between 1870 and 1914. Richard Griffiths presents a rigorous and illuminating analysis of the spiritual and aesthetic motivations that drove writers such as Huysmans, Bloy, Claudel, and Péguy to reject the secular rationalism of their age in favour of a fervent, often mystical Catholicism. The study argues that this religious revival was not a passive retreat from modernity but an active, polemical assault on the values of the Third Republic, driven by an intense longing for a transcendent order. Griffiths details how these writers shaped a distinctive literary aesthetic rooted in medievalism, mysticism, and counter-revolutionary politics, leaving a profound and complex legacy on twentieth-century French thought. Authoritative in scope and elegant in execution, this volume remains an essential reference for students of French literature, religious history, and European intellectual culture.