Coleridge

Originally issued in 1979, this study surveys the full range of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's output. Rather than focusing on his verse alone, it also considers his criticism and literary theory, his dramatic works, his political journalism and thought, and his writing on religion and philosophy. The author gives each of these areas comparable weight, so the picture that emerges is of a fuller and more practical thinker than the mystical figure often imagined, one more engaged with everyday affairs.

The book questions the familiar image of Coleridge as a wounded, unfulfilled genius. It presents evidence of a working playwright, a long-serving contributor to one of the leading newspapers of his time, and a literary figure who moved in the circles of major intellectuals and writers.