Focuses on the multiple connections between Robert Southey (1774-1843) and English Romantic culture. Demonstrating the eclecticism of Southey's writing and the diversity of his interactions with his contemporaries, this work maps the intersections of Southey's life and work with English culture, politics, and history.
Lynda Pratt's collection of specially commissioned essays is the first edited volume devoted to the multiple connections between Robert Southey (1774-1843) and English Romantic culture. A major and highly controversial personage in his own day, Southey has until recently been the forgotten member of the Lake School.
'This sparkling volume of essays will restore Southey to his proper place as one of the three Lake Poets. Too often passed over in favour of Wordsworth and Coleridge, he was, as the contributors to the volume so convincingly demonstrate, in important ways more central to the literature of the period than either.' Professor Richard Cronin, University of Glasgow, UK 'Considered together, the essays do the significant job of demonstrating [Southey's] importance in literary history and his unique approach to English Romanticism.' Brontë Studies 'As a thorough and wide-ranging examination of Southey's influence, Robert Southey and the Contexts of English Romanticism has the added virtue of an excellent introduction... Readers unfamiliar with Southey's writings will appreciate this attention to details that are too often omitted in current forms of literary criticism... All of the essays [...] offer interesting and rewarding insights and, in general, make an effective case for devoting more critical attention to Southey as a major Romantic figure. Overall, this is a valuable addition to Southey and Romanticism studies...' Journal of British Studies
