The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: Volume VIII: A Supplement of New Letters - Hardcover

Wordsworth, William; Wordsworth, Dorothy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198185235 ISBN 13: 9780198185239

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2000

Synopsis

This volume prints more than 150 letters, most of them previously unpublished, which appeared too late for inclusion in the second edition of The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth (1967-88): they are indispensable for understanding the poet and the inner dynamics of the Wordsworth circle. Of outstanding interest are the unexpectedly tender and fervent letters which Wordsworth wrote to his wife Mary during brief periods of separation in 1810 and 1812: others provide fresh evidence about his contacts with Annette Vallon and his `French' daughter Caroline long after his withdrawal from revolutionary politics in France, and indeed up to the end of his life. Further letters illustrate the poet's literary and personal relations with Coleridge, Hazlitt, De Quincey, and Charles Lamb; his changing political and social views; his life in the Lake District and London; and, above all, his lifelong commitment to poetry and the principles that guided his imaginative life. These letters, varied in tone and subject-matter, will do much to dispel the ideal that he was invariably a reluctant or reserved correspondent.

Dorothy Wordsworth, by contrast, fills out all the details of domestic life which her brother thought it unnecessary to dwell on, and her letters add their own characteristic touches to the picture of the Wordsworth circle - until the final breakdown of her health.

About this title

Review:

'an indispensable purchase ... An important book, recommended for all universitylibraries.'N. Bruman, University of Minnesota, Choice, March 1994

...he has once more put all Wordsworth scholars in his debt...Hill goes a long way towards making his volumes the kind of genuine correspondence that scholars actually want to use. When scholars in future, and not just literary ones, want to know the name and dates of the third son by a second marriage of an obscure member of the Beaumont circle, the first resource will be the index to the Oxford volumes. (Times Literary Supplement)

Alan G. Hill's New Letters...gives us a more complete sense of Wordsworth's connections, views, and feelings...this volume is a valuable addition to Wordsworth scholarship. Like the rest of the volumes in the Oxford Wordsworth letters, the scholarship is of a very high standard, and the critical apparatus is sensible and clear. Finally, Alan G. Hill as editor has done an exemplary job in filling in the attendant contextual details whenever necessary. Any serious Wordsworth scholar will doubtless need access to this volume, if only to try and figure out what Wordsworth may or may not have said about Coleridge's gin-drinking habits. (English Studies)

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0198185235
• ISBN 13: 9780198185239
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 332
• Editor: Hill Alan G.