Memorializing Animals During the Romantic Period
'We must rethink Romanticism alongside its animals' (p. 2) So declares Chase Pielak in his book, Memorializing Animals During the Romantic Period, and that is exactly what he does: re evaluate Romantic literature through its use of animal characters and motifs. By focusing on the poetry of Charles and Mary Lamb, John Clare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron and William Wordsworth, with a little of the latter's prose incorporated for good measure, Pielak considers how these authors employ animals to tease out problems concerning life, death, community and memory. Animals provide, in Pielak's words, 'an interpretive frame' (p. 1) a frame which he uses to good effect, providing an admirable study with a new view of Romantic literature and its 'beastly encounters' (p. 2) Pielak presents Memorializing Animals as his first published book, although portions of it were previously published in two journals, Popular Culture Review and Victorian Literature and Culture. At the outset of the book, he helpfully provides an eighteenth century background to the Romantic authors' preoccupation with animals, death and life, particularly in the way that 'animals begin to matter in ways that they hadn't before' (p. 6) He also offers a brief theoretical and literary framework for his thesis, situating it in relation to the work of such scholars as Jacques Derrida, Harriet Ritvo and Janelle Schwartz (pp. 9 10) For the most part, Pielak does not rely heavily on these previous thinkers, as his interpretation of Romantic literature appears largely original although the author does seem overly inclined to name drop Derrida throughout the text. However, it is the Romantic authors that provide the backbone of Pielak's text, with explorations of 'friendship by Lamb, hierarchy and self by Clare, death by Coleridge, the expectations of life by Byron, and memory by Wordsworth' (p. 2) In each case, the main focus is on the Romantic authors' integration of animals into their works. The first chapter examines Charles Lamb, who uses animal imagery in his depiction of community, especially by 'provid[ing] a centerpiece at the table connecting his friends' (p. 13) But Pielak quickly complicates his focus by pointing out that Charles frequently collaborated with his sister Mary; consequently, Pielak chooses, with surprisingly little fanfare, to [name] the Lambs together as authors of the poems' (p. 14) Such a decision might seem slightly arbitrary, but Pielak's overall analysis remains sound. In the second chapter, Pielak turns to John Clare, arguing that he 'resists enclosure and loss of place by reimagining the early modern concept of nature's chain and establishing creature community based on the proposition that all are created creatures, capable of response' (p. 55) In doing so, Pielak studies a sample of Clare's early poetry, commenting that the 'former critical bias against Clare's early work needs to be reconsidered' (p. 40) which he himself does with in depth examinations of 'On Seeing a Lost Greyhound' 'Thrice Welcome' and 'The Ants' The author continues to examine Clare's early poetry in Chapter 3, this time focusing on pre grief that is, a melancholic 'recurring fear of death' (p. 63) and its effect on community. Pertinent poems include 'Description of a Thunderstorm' 'Address to a Lark Singing in Winter' 'The Robin' 'Solitude' and 'There was three ravens sat upon a tree' among others. In Chapter 4 Pielak turns to Samuel Taylor Coleridge by exploring, primarily, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel and 'The Raven' In Pielak's words,