ABSTRACT
This introduction to the topic, claims, methodology, and scholarly grounding of the book sets forth factors that lent ubiquity and intensity to a sense of loss in France during the first half of the nineteenth century. These include the assault on Catholicism during the French Revolution, the prominence of exile in the political and cultural history of the period, bereavement following the collapse of the Empire, and disillusion in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1830. Previewing the issues engaged by each chapter, the introduction defines a key term introduced by this study—the anti-heroic mode.
