This project first took the form of a thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Oxford. The text has since been revised, but the essential framework and premises of the work have remained largely unaltered. Further research and revision has been made possible by the award of a Laming Junior Fellowship conferred on me by The Queen's College, Oxford, which enabled me to work in Madrid during the academic year 1986–7. Final work on the manuscript has been carried out thanks to a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellowship which I took up in October 1987.

My greatest debt is to the guidance and inspiration of Dr Ron Truman, the very best of supervisors. His continual support and encouragement have aided me beyond measure, while the fruitful investigation of many key areas of research stemmed directly from his suggestions. Certain chapters of this study were given in an early form as papers to the Research Seminar in Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Oxford, and I should like to thank members of that seminar for their constructive criticisms of my developing project. I likewise benefited from the discussion session which followed my paper on the ideological construct of Spanish Romanticism at the University of Manchester in 1986. In Madrid, I was able to profit from the wise and authoritative counsels of Professor Hans Juretschke, our most imposing specialist on Spanish Romanticism.