Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self

From the best-selling author of The Invention of Nature comes an exhilarating story about a remarkable group of young rebels who changed the way we think about ourselves and the world.

When did we begin to be as self-centered as we are today? At what point did we expect to have the right to determine our own lives? When did we first ask the question, how can I be free? It all began in the 1790s in a quiet university town in Germany when a group of playwrights, poets, and writers put the self at center stage in their thinking, writing, and their lives. This brilliant circle included the famous poets Goethe, Schiller, and Novalis, the visionary philosophers Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, the contentious Schlegel brothers and in a wonderful cameo Alexander von Humboldt. And at the heart of this group was the formidable Caroline Schlegel who sparked their dazzling conversations about the self, nature, identity, and freedom.

Their collaboration launched Romanticism onto the world stage, inspiring some of the greatest poets, novelists, and thinkers across the world. In their exuberant lives we find epic quarrels, passionate love stories, heart-breaking grief, and above all, radical ideas--about the creative power of the self, the highest aspirations of art and science, the unity of nature and the true meaning of freedom. The French revolutionaries may have changed the political landscape of Europe, but the young Romantics incited a revolution of the mind that transformed our world forever. We are still empowered by their daring leap into the self. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfillment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our responsibilities toward our community and future generations. At the heart of this inspiring book is the extremely modern tension between the dangers of selfishness and the thrilling possibilities of free will.