In the late Romantic age, demands for political change converged with thinking about the end of the world. This book examines writings by Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and their circle that imagined the end, from poems by Byron that pictured fallen empires, sinking islands, and dying stars to the making and unmaking of populations in Frankenstein and The Last Man. These works intersected with and enclosed reflections upon brewing political changes. By imagining political dynasties, slavery, parliament, and English law reaching an end, writers challenged liberal visions of the political future that viewed the basis of governance as permanently settled. The prospect of volcanic eruptions and biblical deluges, meanwhile, pointed towards new political worlds, forged in the ruins of this one. These visions of coming to an end acquire added resonance in our own time, as political and planetary end-times converge once again.

‘… the reader will no doubt come away from this nuanced study with a much greater understanding of the wider political complexities of the Romantic age. Given the extant volume of political commentary on the Romantic period, one commends the author for this undertaking. This book signifies a valuable exploration of Romanticism, post-Waterloo, and its continuing political relevance in the modern age, while shedding fresh light on the textual, social, and personal relationships of the second-generation Romantics.’

Wayne Deakin Source: European Romantic Review