Overview

'The Closest Thing in History' brings the eras of the Romantics and The Beatles together, arguing that The Beatles were a kind of exploded version of the quartet Keats, Byron, Leigh Hunt and Shelley. Opening by laying lout some broad similarities between them, John Webster first examines how the two groups' early mentors, William Wordsworth and Elvis Presley and William Wordsworth firstly galvanised them and then turned against them. Then, looking at their experiences of inspiration, he shows how we find John Lennon echoed Shelley's thinking, and Paul McCartney tuning in to mysterious creative visitations much like Keats. The first section ends with a comparison of Beatlemania and 'Byron-mania', noting how Lord Byron had a female following much like the Beatles and showing how both tapped into hidden but heartfelt social reservoirs of feeling. The middle section then tells the story of the Romantics and their interlocking relationships, bringing in Beatles parallels in the process. Leigh Hunt is presented as a kind of Ringo figure, less of a creative force than the others but a vital supportive figure throughout, the fates of abandoned wives Harriet Shelley and Cynthia Lennon are put side by side, Shelley's 'Prometheus Unbound' is cast as a forerunner of the Beatles' 'Yellow Submarine', and their Apple Corps project finds a historic echo in the Romantics' publishing project from Pisa, 'The Liberal'. These kinds of equivalences are more fully explored in the final section, which traces the legacy of the Romantics, noting that poetry as a popular force has largely been replaced by the newer force of rock 'n' roll, and suggesting that the Romantics reveal how The Beatles could go down in history. John Webster's tantalising book offers original insights and telling perspectives on two great cultural forces. It will be of interest to Beatles fans, scholars and students of Romanticism, and those interested in the relationship between classic poetry and the newer force of rock 'n' roll.

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9781068332807

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'John Webster is a scholar of the Romantics and has been studying their writings for nearly 50 years. This book does not only have an academic approach in the comparisons being offered, but it is also extremely informative and entertaining as well. John's book helped to further educate me in the history and contributions of the Romantics to the world of literature as well as expanding my horizons of how I now view the importance of the Beatles in world history and culture. You will be amazed at many of Webster's anecdotes like how John and Yoko took their walk at St. Pancras Church on the Mad Day Out in 1968 near where Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley once walked many decades earlier. How ironic that in the Beatles movie ""Yellow Submarine"" released in the same year of the Mad Day Out walk of 1968, the Frankenstein monster (a Mary Shelley creation) would transform into John Lennon in the animated classic. I do believe that Mary had much more of a sympathetic attitude towards the creature than Hollywood did, however! The actual historical comparisons put forth by John Webster in his title are not far-fetched as some skeptics might assume. Many of the parallels he draws in his book are quite frankly, astounding. I was very happy and pleased to purchase this book for my Beatles library. This book echoed a few words of wisdom that I like to use as a personal motto: ""The day you stop learning, is the day you stop living."" With this book I like to believe that I learned a lot. Not only about the Beatles as a cultural phenomenon, but about the significant contributions of the Romantics to English literature'. John Bezzini, beatlesbookstore.com

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