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The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley - (Wiley Blackwell Critical Biographies) by John Worthen (Hardcover)
About this item
Highlights
- Drawing especially on the many scholarly discoveries of recent years, this biography examines the life - and death ‒ of one of the greatest Romantic poets.
- About the Author: JOHN WORTHEN is Emeritus Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK.
- 504 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, General
- Series Name: Wiley Blackwell Critical Biographies
Description
Book Synopsis
Drawing especially on the many scholarly discoveries of recent years, this biography examines the life - and death ‒ of one of the greatest Romantic poets. Based on sceptical historical investigation and featuring an in-depth look at Shelley's personal, financial and familial situation, it builds a compelling narrative about a controversial writer and thinker whose personal and philosophical convictions caused much turmoil during his short yet extraordinarily influential life.
The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley reveals sides of the author not often studied. It looks at Shelley as an intensely loving, thoughtful and responsible man and father, who (except in one case) took exemplary care of the women he loved and who fell in love with him. It shows how significant his status as a gentleman was; it examines his poetry, letters, notebooks and discursive prose so that readers can comprehend the most important concerns of his life; it explores the financial and medical grounds for his years of exile; it is also the first biography to take account of his recently discovered early long poem the Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things.
This biography offers readers a unique look at a famous poet, scholar, gentleman, democrat, atheist and tragic icon of English Romanticism.
From the Back Cover
BLACKWELL CRITICAL BIOGRAPHIES
General Editor - Claude Rawson
"John Worthen's literary biography is beautifully written, thoughtful, compact, and well-researched. Firmly grounded in the facts of Shelley's mundane existence (it goes more deeply into the intricacies of his finances than any biography I have read) it never forgets that the reason for our interest in these is that he was a great poet and prose writer. Here will be found stimulating re-evaluations, fresh insights, and provocation. But even when readers disagree with the conclusions he draws from the evidence, they will rise from this book braced, moved, and with a renewed sense of the exceptional nature of Shelley's career and of his extraordinary genius."
Nora Crook, Anglia Ruskin University
Drawing on the many scholarly discoveries of recent years, this biography examines the life and death of one of the greatest Romantic poets. Based on sceptical historical investigation and featuring an in-depth look at Shelley's personal, financial and familial situation, John Worthen builds a compelling narrative about a controversial writer and thinker whose personal and philosophical convictions caused much turmoil during his short yet extraordinarily influential life.
The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Takes into account - the first biography to do so - Shelley's recently discovered poem, the Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things
- Examines his poetry, letters, notebooks and discursive prose, allowing readers access to the most intimate and important concerns of his life
- Explores the financial and medical grounds for his years in exile
- Offers readers a unique look at a famous poet, scholar, gentleman, democrat, atheist and tragic icon of English Romanticism.
About the Author
JOHN WORTHEN is Emeritus Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK. His books include The Life of William Wordsworth: A Critical Biography (2014); The Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2010); T. S. Eliot: A Short Biography (2009); Robert Schumann: Life and Death of a Musician (2007); and D. H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider (2005).
