Hermann Fischer's lively and original study of Romantic verse narrative traces the origins and development of this poetic form in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It brings together the longer epic verse tales of Scott, Byron and Southey and the more lyrical forms of Romantic narrative poetry in the revealing but neglected context of the genre and its history. Professor Fischer addresses the question of genre from both theoretical and historical viewpoints. His study illuminates many areas of Romantic literature, including the role of the medieval revival and the decline of neoclassicism, the relative importance of popular and more literary sources, and questions of changing taste and the reading public. This translation, extensively revised and updated, makes Hermann Fischer's acclaimed study available for the first time in English.