The Heretical Romantic Heroism of Beau Brummell

Abstract

Beau Brummell has a special place in the history of romanticism. Whereas followers of Shaftesbury and Rousseau typically looked to nature, to the primitive and spontaneous and effortless, Brummell looked instead to culture for the redemptive and for redemption. Rather than repudiate the stultifying social hierarchies of the past, the ugliness of commerce and industrialism, and the conformism of democracy, by looking outside for a natural, for a primitive or pastoral or wildernesscentered compensation, he sought to clear or create a space at the very heart of the city where romantic values might hold sway, and in their unchallenged authority shine a light out in the darkness.