Introduction: the sensation of romanticism -- Part I: Periodicity. Romantic sobriety; Kant all lit up: romanticism, periodicity, and the catachresis of genius -- Part II: Theory. De man, Marx, Rousseau, and the machine; against theory beside romanticism: mute bodies, fanatical seeing; the sensation of the signifier; ghost theory -- Part III: Texts. Lyric Ritalin: time and history in Ode to the west wind; no satisfaction: high theory, cultural studies, and Don Juan; Gothic thought and surviving romanticism in Zafloya and Jane Eyre; coming attractions: Lamia and cinematic sensation -- Coda. The embarrassment of romanticism