Moody, Mad and Melancholy.
Isn't It Romantic?

By

Roger Kimball

Updated Dec. 20, 2000 12:01 am ET

"T here is almost universal agreement," W.H. Auden once remarked, that the romantic hero is "always unhappy. To be happy is almost a proof that one is not a hero." Charles Baudelaire made a similar observation about his own romantic disposition: "I do not pretend that Joy cannot associate with Beauty, but I will maintain that Joy is one of her most vulgar adornments, while Melancholy may be called her illustrious spouse."

The British writer Anita Brookner does not quote either of these passages...