Critical assessment of Coleridge, poet and thinker, by leading scholars of Romanticism.

First published in 1959 by Chatto & Windus, this much-cited book throws light on the intellectual organization of Coleridge's poetry and the imaginative qualities implicit in his philosophy. John Beer's treatment of the visionary Coleridge is at the same.

Coleridge's Aids to Reflection was written at a time when new movements in thought were starting to unsettle belief. It was read with admiration by early Victorians such as John Sterling, F. D. Maurice, and Thomas Arnold, contributing to the formation of the Broad Church Movement, and with respect by members of the High Church Movement, including John Henry Newman. Coleridge had intended simply to produce a selection from the writings of the seventeenth-century Archbishop Robert Leighton with comments of his own, but as he worked at the book he found the commentary expanding to take in the fruits of his religious thinking over the years, so that the second, and more important, part of the volume was totally dominated by his thought. In this, the first major edition of Aids to Reflection, the intricate story of Coleridge's changing conception is unfolded by way of an introduction and detailed notes, the surviving materials for the volume being printed in appendixes. The introduction also traces the subsequent influence of the work in England and America; further appendixes include James Marsh's influential preface to the first American edition, which is reproduced in full. Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is one of the most influential, as well as one of the most enigmatic, of all Romantic figures. The possessor of a precocious talent, he dazzled contemporaries with his poetry, journalism, philosophy and oratory without ever quite living up to his early promise, or overcoming problems of dependence and drug addiction. The Cambridge Companion to Coleridge does full justice to the many facets of Coleridge's life and work. Specially commissioned essays focus on his major poems, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel, his notebooks, and his major work of non-fiction the Biographia Literaria. Attention is given to his role as talker, journalist, critic, and philosopher, his politics, his religion, and his reputation in his own times and afterwards. A chronology and guides to further reading complete the volume, making this an indispensable guide to Coleridge and his work.

Dr Harding demonstrates in this study the importance of human relationship in Coleridge's thought and writing. The first three chapters explore Coleridge's idea of relationship as it developed throughout his creative life, and show how Coleridge's own relationships influenced his thinking about morality. One section is devoted to a fresh interpretation of Coleridge's major poetry. The final chapter traces the idea of relationship in Coleridge's social and political philosophy. Dr Harding uses previously unpublished Coleridge manuscripts in support of his analysis, and assesses the nature of Coleridge's originality as a thinker by viewing him in the context of his own time and through comparison with other writers. This evaluation of a major poet and thinker will appeal not only to those whose interests are literary, but also to students of philosophy and politics.