The Reputations of Thomas Moore

Book excerpt: This collection of eleven essays positions Moore within a developing and expanding international readership during the course of the nineteenth century. In accounting for the successes he achieved and the challenges he faced, recurring themes include: Moore’s influence and reputation; modes of dissemination through networks and among communities; also, the articulation of personal, political, and national identities. This book, the product of an international team of scholars, is the first to focus explicitly on the reputations of Thomas Moore in different parts of the world, including Bombay, Dublin, Leipzig, and London, as well as America, Canada, Greece, and the Hispanic world. Through it, we will understand more about Moore’s reception, and also appreciate how the publication and dissemination of poetry and song in the romantic and Victorian eras operated in different parts of the world—in particular considering how artistic and political networks effected the transmission of cultural products.