The Cambridge Companion to Coleridge
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The Cambridge Companion to Coleridge 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 dependency and drug addiction. The Cambridge Companion to Coleridge does full justice to the many facets of Coleridge’s life, thought and writing. 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; to 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. lucy newlyn is Fellow and Tutor in English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. She is an authority on Coleridge and Wordsworth, and has published exten- sively on English Romanticism. Her publications include Coleridge, Words- worth and the Language of Allusion (1986), ‘Paradise Lost’ and the Romantic Reader (1993), and Reading, Writing and Romanticism: The Anxiety of Reception (2000), all with Oxford University Press. Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2006 Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2006 CAMBRIDGE COMPANIONS TO LITERATURE The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy The Cambridge Companion to the Classic edited by P. E. Easterling Russian Novel The Cambridge Companion to Old English edited by Malcolm V. 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Bara nski´ and edited by Nicholas Rzhevsky Rebecca J. West Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2006 THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO COLERIDGE EDITED BY LUCY NEWLYN St Edmund Hall, Oxford Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2006 published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom cambridge university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru , uk 40 West 20 th Street, New York, ny 10011 -4211 , usa 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vic 3207 , Australia Ruiz de Alarc on´ 13 , 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org C Cambridge University Press 2002 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2002 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeface Sabon 10 /13 pt System LATEX 2ε [TB ] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library isbn 0 521 65071 2 hardback isbn 0 521 65909 4 paperback Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2006 CONTENTS List of contributors page ix List of abbreviations x Chronology xiii Acknowledgements xv Introduction 1 lucy newlyn part 1 texts and contexts 1 Coleridge’s life 17 kelvin everest 2 The ‘Conversation’ poems 32 paul magnuson 3 Slavery and superstition in the supernatural poems 45 tim fulford 4 Biographia Literaria 59 james engell 5 The Notebooks 75 josie dixon 6 The later poetry 89 j. c. c. mays part 2 discursive modes 7 The talker 103 seamus perry vii Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2006 list of contents 8 The journalist 126 deirdre coleman 9 The critic 142 angela esterhammer 10 Political thinker 156 peter j. kitson 11 The philosopher 170 paul hamilton 12 Religious thinker 187 mary anne perkins part 3 themes and topics 13 Gender 203 julie carlson 14 Symbol 217 james c. m c kusick 15 Coleridge’s afterlife 231 john beer Guide to further reading 245 Index 262 viii