This study begins with two fatal duels as an introduction to a literary period best defined by its antagonisms. Exploring three publishing phenomena of the age; the novels of Walter Scott, Byron's Don Juan, and the new literary magazines, it attempts a reconfiguration of our understanding of literary culture after Waterloo.

Richard Cronin is Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow. He has published widely, especially on Romantic and Victorian literature. His Romantic Victorians: English Literature, 1824-1840 appeared in 2002, and Emma, co-edited with Dorothy McMillan, appeared in The Cambridge edition of the Works of Jane Austen in 2005.

• 1: Introduction: Two Duels


• 2: Two Dinners


• 3: Personalities


• 4: Flesh-Coloured Silk


• 5: Remembering Peebles


• 6: Mr. Knight's Best Small Capitals


• 7: Pistols and Horsewhips


• 8: Disunity of Mind: The Novel as Magazine


• 9: Practical Asyndeton: The Poem as Magazine


• 10: Cruel Mockeries


• 11: Jack and Gill


• 12: Conclusion: Two Cultures


• Bibliography