This study provides a fresh assessment of Spanish Romanticism through a sympathetic appraisal of its literary theory and criticism. It identifies the origins of Spanish Romantic thought in the theories of German Romantic thinkers, in particular Herder's historicism. The range of reference, from the articles of Bohl von Faber to the judgements made by Canete and Valera is counterpointed by the detail of close readings of books and articles published between 1834 and 1844, together with an examination of the ideas which informed the creative work of Fernan Caballero. Derek Flitter's use of the history of ideas offers a corrective to the recent preponderance of political approaches to Spanish Romanticism, countering their stress on its radical and liberal associations with a detailed demonstration that the majority of Spanish Romantic writers derived their inspiration from restorative, traditionalist and Christian elements in their contemporaries' theory and criticism.

"...constitutes a valuable contribution to the scholarship of Spanish (Peninsular) Literary Romanticism..." Canadian Journal of Latin American and Carribean Studies

"Spanish Romantic Literary Theory and Criticism is the most comprehensive and important study of this topic to date. The detailed summaries of and commentaries on numerous articles by nineteenth-century critics provide a treasure-house of information. Flitter's thesis of the dominance of literary theories of historicity, organicity, nationalism, and morality in Spanish criticism of the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s is overwhelmingly established and rings true to those of us who have spent many hours perusing mid-nineteenth-century Spanish periodicals." Brian J. Dendle, Canadian Review of Hispanic Studies