Texts of Keats's Poems

Jack Stillinger

ISBN 10: 0674875117 / ISBN 13: 9780674875111

Published by Harvard University Press January 1974, 1974

About this Item

Published by Harvard University Press, 1974. The dust jacket is faded, but covered in protective mylar. The inside is clean and the binding is tight.

Seller Inventory # 1432221

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Texts of Keats's Poems
• Publisher: Harvard University Press January 1974
• Publication Date: 1974
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674875117
• ISBN 13: 9780674875111
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: VG
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • poetry

About this title

Synopsis

Jack Stillinger's concern is with the words of Keats's texts: “I wish,” he says, “to get rid of the wrong ones and to suggest how to go about constructing texts with a greater proportion of the right ones.” He finds that in the two best modern editions of Keats, one third of the texts have one or more wrong words. Modern editors have sometimes based their texts on inferior holograph, transcript, or printed versions; sometimes combined readings from separate versions; sometimes retained words added by copyists and early editors (who frequently made “improvements” when they thought the poems needed them); and sometimes, of course, introduced independent errors of their own.

The heart of this book is a systematic account of the textual history of each of the 150 poems that can reasonably be assigned to Keats. In each history Stillinger dates the work, as closely as it can be dated; gives the details of first publication; specifies the existing variant readings and their sources; and suggests what might be the basis for a standard text.

About the Author

Jack Stillinger was Professor of English and a permanent member of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois.