ABSTRACT
The relationship between art and literature in Britain began to change in the mid-eighteenth century; by the 1830s, the visual and the verbal arts were increasingly interdependent and widely available to a growing middle class. Rogers's Italy is the pleasant link between two quite different attitudes. Italy's eventual success was the product of years of effort, heavy financial investment and a shrewd understanding of developments in the literary marketplace. Rogers's Italy marks several key shifts in the literary and cultural marketplace of Britain, most notably the growing economic power of a female readership. Integral to the conceptual and material development of Italy was the timing of Rogers's trips to the peninsula. He first travelled to Italy in October of 1814 and then returned in the autumn of 1821. Rogers's first trip was unexpectedly cut short by Napoleon's escape from Elba, and he left just six weeks before Waterloo.
