"What were the limits of Romantic sympathy? Judith W. Page incisively demonstrates that, where Jews and Judaism were concerned, artists like Edgeworth and Wordsworth, Lamb and Coleridge, Cumberland and Kean mostly expressed ambivalence. Contrasting such texts with the autoethnographic writings of Romantic Jews themselves, Page gives new life to neglected Anglo-Jewish texts like Hyman Hurwitz's "Hebrew Tales," Judith Montefiore's "Jerusalem" journals, and Emma Lyons' "Miscellaneous Poems. "In a fascinating meditation on recent Jewish critics' sympathy for Romantic poetry, Page rejects a simplistic correspondence between Romanticism and Judaism while discovering a range of elective affinities. I have been waiting for this book for a long time."--Michael Galchinsky, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Program in Jewish Studies, Georgia State University
"Judith Page's "Imperfect Sympathies" is an original, thorough, and exceptionally perceptive account of the ways in which a late eighteenth-century cultural endorsement of sympathy and sentiment influenced the multiple and complicated representations of Jews in print culture. Her discussions of the long-neglected works of Judith Montefiore and Hyman Hurwitz, as well as her analyses of the complex and ambivalent attitude toward Jews and Judaism in the writings of Maria Edgeworth and William Wordsworth, are particularly illuminating. Anyone interested in Romantic writing, Jewish studies, or women's studies should read this engaging, informative book."--Anne K. Mellor, Professor of English and Women's Studies, UCLA


Judith W. Page argues that the cultural revolution of sympathy and sentiment in British literature from 1770-1830 influenced the representation of Jews and Judaism. Page draws on historical materials and primary documents by and about Jews of the period, as well as a variety of authors and literary genres. She argues that there is a tension between the Romantic impulse to admire and sympathize with Jews and Judaism on the one hand, and the traditions of anti-Semitism and conversionist philo-Semitism on the other. This often unresolved tension in the literature reflects the political and cultural struggles of the time, as well as the dilemma of Romanticism, which advocates sympathy but does not always accommodate difference.