Final answer:
The prominent writers of English Romantic prose include Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, and Mary Shelley, among others. Their works exemplify the Romantic era's style with expressive language and a focus on individual experience. Other contributors included William Hazlitt, Thomas de Quincey, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Step-by-step explanation:
The English Romantic period was a time marked by a surge in the appreciation for nature, beauty, and emotions. Contrary to popular belief that Romanticism was dominated by poetry, there were several noteworthy prose writers from this period as well. The prominent writers of English Romantic prose include Jane Austen, known for her novels that delve into the lives, loves, and follies of the British gentry, such as 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Sense and Sensibility'. Additionally, the Brontë sisters, primarily Charlotte Brontë with 'Jane Eyre' and Emily Brontë with 'Wuthering Heights', created groundbreaking works of emotional intensity and profound characterization. Moreover, we can't forget about Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein', blending elements of the Gothic with the Romantic to explore themes of ambition, humanity, and the sublime. These writers helped to define the prose style of the Romantic era with their use of expressive language, focus on individual experience, and explorations of societal norms.
Other important figures of English Romantic prose were writers like William Hazlitt, Thomas de Quincey, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who besides poetry, contributed significantly to romantic literary criticism and philosophy. American writers like Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, while not British, were contemporaries who shared the Romantic interest in emotion, nature, and the individual.
Prose from the Romantic Era is characterized by an elevation of style, but with increasing accessibility for the readers. The period's prose showcases strong emotions and moral reflections as seen in the works of the writers mentioned.