“A comprehensive summary of so monumental a work, taking note singly of each chapter, would far exceed the bounds of a book review….The sweep and eclecticism of the writing addressed in the Handbook arises in large measure from the demotion, also on trend, of ‘Romanticism’ from the signifier of an intellectual movement to a period descriptor….Perhaps it is not the least part of the achievement of this remarkable volume, then, that in presenting the extraordinary diversity and breadth of what might be called British Romantic nonfiction prose, it shows also the enduring relevance of the epithet ‘Romantic’, not as a monolithic category, uncritically deployed, nor simply as a period designator, but as a literary marker which, all the more as it is contested and problematized, continues fruitfully to grow in its use and necessity.” —Uttara Natarajan, Charles and Mary Lamb Journal, Winter 2025

“The Oxford Handbook of British Romantic Prose identifies itself as ‘the first full-length essay collection devoted entirely to British Romantic nonfiction prose’ (1). Coming in just under 1000 pages, it is hard to imagine a more ambitious volume in terms of scope. The task that editor Robert Morrison has set for The Handbook is divided between establishing the catch-all nature of British Romantic nonfiction prose as equivalent to traditional genres like the novel or poetry and identifying the ‘energy, originality, and vitality’ this literature exhibits (1). My experience of the volume did not yield a distinct coherence or unity among the texts these essays discuss that would define a traditional genre. Rather, the dazzling range of nonfiction prose these essays address reveal a diversity that makes any category or genre that The Handbook could establish almost impossible to imagine. Like the broad range of texts and issues that The Handbook takes on, its fifty-four chapters feature a variety of methodological approaches. This variety also militates against finding commonalties between, for instance, a chapter devoted to ‘Food and Drink’ and one devoted to ‘Biography’. This is not necessarily a weakness of the volume. The Handbook’s strength as a collection and utility as a thought-provoking resource are first rate.….Overall, The Oxford Handbook of British Romantic Prose provides riches for a student of the Romantic period in its individual essays, while the question of Romantic prose as a genre seems significantly more complex that such traditional distinctions allow.”—David Baulch, Prose Studies, 2025