The Reception of Ossian in Europe

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James Macpherson's Poems of Ossian, said to be translations from the Gaelic of a third-century bard, caused a sensation on their first appearance in the early 1760s. Contrary to the impression often conveyed in literary histories, enthusiasm for the poetry of the 'Homer of the North' cannot be dismissed as a short-lived fad, for its appeal lasted a century or more, both at home and abroad. There is hardly a major Romantic poet on whom it failed to make a significant impact. In the words of Sir Walter Scott, it succeeded in "giving a new tone ot poetry throughout all Europe" and its influence was ubiquitous, from Poland to Portugal, from Paris to Prague. The essays brought together here consider the reception of Ossian in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, as well as in a wide range of European countries. In some the focus is on individual writers (for instance, Goethe, Schiller, Chateaubriand, Espronceda), in others there is a broader sweep and a survey of reception in a national literary culture is offered (for instance, Hungary, Russia, Sweden). One of the two essays on Ossian in Italy at last gives Macpherson's influential epigone, John Smith, his due. Consideration is also given to Ossian's significance for the rise of historicism, and to non-literary forms of reception in music and art.

Series Editor:Dr Elinor Shaffer FBA, Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Contributors:
Howard Gaskill, University of Edinburgh

Dafydd Moore, University of Plymouth

Donald Meek, University of Edinburgh

Mary-Ann Constantine, University of Wales

Mchel Mac Craith, University of Galway

Joep Leerssen, University of Amsterdam

Colin Smethurst, University of Glasgow

Sandro Jung, University of Wales, Lampeter

Caitrona Dochartaigh, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

Wolf Gerhard Schmidt, University of Saarbrcken

Peter Graves, University of Sweden

James Porter, University of Aberdeen

Gabriella Hartvig, University of Pcs

Nina Taylor-Terlecka, Oxford, UK

Peter France, University of Edinburgh

Enrico Mattioda

Francesca Broggi-Wthrich

Andrew Ginger

Gerald Br, Aberta University

Christopher Smith, Norwich, UK

Murdo MacDonald, University of Dundee

Reception of Ossian in Europe Review
Reception of Ossian in Europe Review 2

Reviews

"The Reception of Ossian in Europe is necessary reading for scholars of eighteenth-century and Romantic studies; no serious library should be without it...[this] book breaks so much fresh ground in these various nations and raises so many topics of debate regarding the connections of authenticity and national identity, that...no single critical study has so thoroughly demonstrated Macpherson's impact through Europe as the book under review...Gaskill and his contributors have collectively produced a major literary achievement that traces Macpherson's formative influence through some of the most significant European authors from the 1760's onward. Read The Reception of Ossian in Europe and be prepared for some surprises."Mel Kersey, Eighteenth Century Scotland, July 2005 -- Mel Kersey
"[an] enjoyable, informative, and scholarly set of essays...Gaskill has been at the centre of a group of critics who for the last twenty years have reassessed the importance of Macpherson and Ossian." Sebastian Mitchell, Translation and Literature -- Sebastian Mitchell
"It is wide-ranging, fascinating, and does not disappoint....The whole is an outstanding piece of work, incomparably the best study of Macpherson's European influence, and a triumph for editor and contributors alike....Ossian was a phenomenon on an altogether different scale, and this book is an indispensable guide to the ways in which this was so." Murray G. H. Pittock, Modern Languages Review,101.4. 2006 -- Murray G. H. Pittock, University of Manchester
"Few writers can have enjoyed such a deep and appreciated reception across Europe as James Macpherson did; and among their number none perhaps would find themselves so dismissively treated by modern critical opinion. In this way, Howard Gaskill's volume plays a central role in the series of which Elinor Shaffer is the General Editor. Macpherson is an author who can best be understood through his reception. This is the first full study of it in English, and it builds on the revisionist work on Macpherson which Gaskill has been carrying out since the 1980s. It is wide-ranging, fascinating and does not disappoint.... The whole is an outstanding piece of work, incomparably the best study of Macpherson's European influence, and a triumph for editor and contributors alike. The profound importance of Macpherson's work to European culture is all too frequently sidelined the domestic grouping of him as a forger' like Thomas Chatterton or Lolo Morganwg. Ossian was a phenomenon on an altogether different scale, and this book is an indispensable guide to the ways in which this was so." Murray G. H. Pittock, University of Manchester, Modern Languages Review, 2006 -- Murray G. H. Pittock, University of Manchester, Modern Languages Review, 2006
'This, it seems, clear, was a real labour of love by the editor...The designation 'comprehensive' should, I think, be given freely to The Reception of Ossian in Europe....invaluable.' Graeme Morton, University of Guelph, International Review of Scottish Studies, vol 31, 2006 -- Graeme Morton, International Review of Scottish Studies
"Howard Gaskill, doughtiest of Ossian's champions, has edited a comprehensive survey of the reception of Ossian in Europe...Gaskill himself furnishes a wide-ranging introduction, and a 'time-line' of almost fifty pages compiled (a formidable labour!) by Paul Burnaby, document translations, critical works, and other Ossianic echoes from the first partial French (1760) to the first Slovenian translation (1996), new editions of Ossian in Italy, Hungary, and Francophone Canada in the 90s, and the Ossian exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2002...Ossian is still with us, a far more pervasive influence than many readers, even those acquainted with the poems themselves, with have previously recognised." -- Francis Lamport, Comparative Critical Studies

Author Bio

Howard Gaskill retired in 2001 as Reader in German at the University of Edinburgh. He is editor of The Poems of Ossian and Related Works (Edinburgh University Press, 1996) and co-editor of From Gaelic to Romantic: Ossianic Translations.