In this work, the author has written her first book on art history for many years. She examines the works and lives of eight 10th century painters and writers. She traces how French Romanticism followed the political turmoil of the late 18th century and the defeat of Waterloo in 1815, and replaced the agnosticism of the Enlightenment and Revolution with a new heroism. Examining the works of Delacroix, Ingres and Gros, the brothers Goncourt, Baudelaire, Zola, Alfred de Musset and Huysmans, she argues that the Romantics in France made the heroism of modern life their creed and transferred their idealism to the domain of art, either as practitioners or as critics. At the same time, the author takes the reader on a tour of these artists and writers, bringing vividly to life unfamiliar works, and casting a new light on more familiar ones.