Description:
By examining the family and financial circumstances of Wordsworth's early years, this illuminating biography reshapes our understanding of the great Romantic poet's most creative period of life and writing.
- Features new research into Wordsworth's financial situation, and into how the poet and his family survived financially
- Offers a new understanding of the role of his great unwritten poem 'The Recluse'
- Presents a new assessment of the relationship between Wordsworth and Coleridge
Review Quotes:
"John Worthen's engaging new biography of Wordsworth begins by quoting the poet's recollection of himself at around the age of 10, surveying tall trees, black chasms, and dizzy crags: 'I loved to stand and & read j Their looks forbidding', he says, 'read & disobey' (p. 3). . . Worthen's book is a revealing account of the consequences of that daring." (The Review of English Studies, 15 October 2014)