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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

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Edited by Richard Herne Shepherd. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1897 edition by Chatto & Windus, London. ... Read more

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Muse, sing the deeds of golden Aphrodite, Who wakens with her smile the lulled delight Of sweet desire, taming the eternal kings Of Heaven, and men, and all the living things That fleet along the air, or whom the sea . ... Read more

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This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 4; Original Published by: Virtue & company in 1905 in 484 pages; Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / Poetry; Poetry / General; Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

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Edited by the historian Alexander Hamilton Thompson, this volume offers an introduction to the poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The selection, compiled and introduced by Professor Hamilton, are supplemented with extensive notes shedding light on the circumstances of the poems and elucidating the references, literary and otherwise, which proliferated Shelley's works. First published in 1915, this volumes remains a useful survey of the works of one of England's most celebrated Romantic poets. ... Read more

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Writing to his publisher in 1813, Shelley expressed the hope that two of his major works "should form one volume"; nearly two centuries later, the second volume of the Johns Hopkins edition of The Complete Poetry fulfills that wish for the first time. This volume collects two important pieces: Queen Mab and The Esdaile Notebook. Privately issued in 1813, Queen Mab was perhaps Shelley's most intellectually ambitious work, articulating his views of science, politics, history, religion, society, and individual human relations. Subtitled A Philosophical Poem: With Notes, it became his most influential -- and pirated -- poem during much of the nineteenth century, a favorite among reformers and radicals. The Esdaile Notebook, a cycle of fifty-eight early poems, exhibits an astonishing range of verse forms. Unpublished until 1964, this sequence is vital in understanding how the poet mastered his craft.

As in the acclaimed first volume, these works have been critically edited by Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat. The poems are presented as Shelley intended, with textual variants included in footnotes. Following the poems are extensive discussions of the circumstances of their composition and the influences they reflect; their publication or circulation by other means; their reception at the time of publication and in the decades since; their re-publication, both authorized and unauthorized; and their place in Shelley's intellectual and aesthetic development.

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Volume I of this critical edition of Shelley's prose--the first since the Julian Edition (1926-30)--provides authoritative texts of The Necessity of Atheism, the Irish pamphlets, the vegetarian essays, The Assassins, A Refutation of Deism, On Christianity, the "Hermit of Marlow" political writings, and several reviews. The texts, which are based on first editions and manuscripts, were all written between Shelley's last months in Oxford in 1811 and his departure for Italy in 1818. They are conservatively edited, with all changes from copy-text noted, along with revisions, deletions, and a historical collation of significant earlier editions. The Introduction provides a description of these editions, a full statement of editorial principles and practice, and an account of the relevant political and social context as Shelley knew and wrote about it. The commentary pays particular attention to the problems of dating the manuscripts, and contains more detailed copy-text descriptions, more thorough accounts of provenance, and more information on sources and allusions than any previous edition of the works. Location lists of rare first editions are comparably more complete than those provided in earlier bibliographies. ... Read more

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A milestone in literary scholarship, the publication of the Johns Hopkins edition of The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley makes available for the first time critically edited clear texts of all poems and translations that Shelley published or circulated among friends, as well as diplomatic texts of his significant incomplete poetic drafts and fragments. Edited upon historical principles by Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat, the multi volume edition will offer more poems and fragments than any previous collective edition, arranged in the order of their first circulation. These texts are followed by the most extensive collations hitherto available and detailed commentaries that describe their contextual origins and subsequent reception. Rejected passages of released poems appear as supplements to those poems, while other poetic drafts that Shelley rejected or left incomplete at his death will be grouped according to either their publication histories or the notebooks in which they survive.

Volume One includes Shelley's first four works containing poetry (all prepared for publication before his expulsion from Oxford), as well as "The Devil's Walk" (circulated in August 1812), and a series of short poems that he sent to friends between 1809 and 1814, including a bawdy satire on his parents and "Oh wretched mortal," a poem never before published. An appendix discusses poems lost or erroneously attributed to the young Shelley.

"These early poems are important not only biographically but also aesthetically, for they provide detailed evidence of how Shelley went about learning his craft as a poet, and the differences between their tone and that of his mature short poetry index a radical change in his self-image... The poems in Volume I, then, demonstrate Shelley's capacity to write verse in a range of stylistic registers. This early verse, even in its most abandoned forays into Sensibility, the Gothic, political satire, and vulgarity -- perhaps especially in these most apparently idiosyncratic gestures -- provides telling access to its own cultural moment, as well as to Shelley's art and thought in general." -- from the Editorial Overview

Customer Reviews (2)

What Shelleyans have been waiting for; and still are.
This looks to be an excellent edition, and it's certainly a relief that Shelley is finally being presented complete and unaltered, and with an entourage of thousands of helpful notes.
I give only three stars to this particular volume, though, because it only presents about a hundred and fifty pages of actual Shelley; and, since Shelley made the jump from mediocrity to greatness only after writing quite a lot; and also considering how much time has already passed since this first volume came out: it will be quite a while before Reiman reaches the material worth paying money(per slim volume) for. The Longman version (pricier per volume, but each containing more) will most likely be complete a bit sooner.
So, I and all Shelley lovers wish this enterprise the best good luck; but might prefer its volumes (how many total? 7?) to be released in reverse order at this rate. For now we're stuck with the antiquated Modern Library edition for so many poems.

At last! Shelley plain after 200 (or so) years!
The state of Shelley publishing has been one of the literary scandals of the last 200-odd years.

Mary Shelley, Shelley's widow and first editor, did her work under threat. Shelley's father Sir Timothy Shelley wanted his son's memory forgotten. Since Sir Timothy was paying a "pension" of 150 pounds a year to his son's widow and child, he was able to blackmail Mary Shelley out of writing a biography or issuing a complete works, by threatening to cut off her income. The readiness to starve his own grandson to strike at his dead son is villainy of the sort you'd expect to find in a Victorian novel, not in life. But there it was; the poet's father was a Bad Man, and no doubt part of the model for the occasional Bad Fathers (the Cenci, Jupiter etc) in Shelley's work.

So Mary Shelley's work, while Sir Timothy was still alive, publishing the most important poems with notes that collectively add up to a kind of biography, was an act of loyalty to her husband, and not without courage.

Her successors deserve less praise. Though occasionally ingenious in correcting details of text and recovering poems from notebook fragments, they betrayed Shelley. Some poems they deliberately omitted for their radicalism: the 1820 ballad, "Young Parson Williams", was one example. Other poems they left in a bowlerised state, in particular _Laon and Cythna_, published with its religious, sexual and political radicalism blunted as _The Revolt of Islam_. Still other poems were distorted, by carelessness (eg the missing stanza of _On the Head of the Medusa_, the missing lines in _Mont Blanc_) or by sentimentality.

A glaring example of sentimental distortion is the breaking off of the _Triumph of Life_ fragment at the line: " 'Then what is life,' I cried." Shelley's draft continues for four lines, showing that the dark vision of the procession of life, that has dominated the poem till this point, is to "roll" on and out of the poem. One section of the poem had ended and another was about to start. The whole poem, if it had been finished, probably involved a movement from despair into light in the manner of _Prometheus Unbound_. But the absence of those lines led many commentators to believe that the poem was intended to be only a statement of despair. (Rather as if we had Act I of _Prometheus Unbound_ but not the later sections of that poem.)

Also, Shelley wrote "I said", not "I cried". The Victorian editors substituted "cried" because "crying" gives us a properly "romantic" Shelley, less like the real, controlled artist. And "cried" furnished a spurious rhyme with "wayside" and "abide" in the lines above - though at the same time distorting Shelley's terza rima.

And stopping the poem at that dramatic point gave us another Victorian myth: the young poet, defeated by the Great Question and failing to find an answer in verse, plunges beneath the waves in search of final truth. A romantic suicide instead of a pointless accidental drowning (or quite possibly murder by an Italian fishing smack, intending piracy). Without digressing into the many reasons why the suicide story is nonsense, it can be observed in this context that distortion of Shelley's poetry inevitably leads to distortions of biography as well as of interpretation.

And there things have stood, for over 100 years. Oxford University Press could reasonably have claimed to be the guardian of Shelley's poetry, and they have failed their trust shamefully. Oxford began publishing a genuinely complete poetical works in the 1970s, edited by Neville Rogers. This project mysteriously stopped after just two of the projected four volumes. However none of Rogers' work on Shelley's poems up to 1817 has been incorporated into any of the one-volume Shelley editions, including Oxford's. Instead the unsatisfactory Victorian text, with all its distortions, bowdlerisations, suppressions, omissions and shoddinesses has been allowed to stand.

The first volume of this four-volume project gives us every reason to hope we will finally - after nearly 200 years - be able to read Shelley's poems without distortion, censorship or omission. This volume contains what would generally be considered to be Shelley's juvenilia: for example the intriguing mini-epic _The Wandering Jew_ in which Ahasuerus appears not as a monster but as a sympathetic character for one of the first times in European literature.

And we get the political passion and the outrageous parodies of the _Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson_. To get an idea of the sheer outrageousness of the _Posthumous Fragments_, imagine a contemporary poet publishing scurrilous satires and angry political poems as if they were written by John Hinckley (the guy who tried to assassinate Reagan), and smuggled out of his cell. Then imagine that one of the poems included an exchange between Che Guevera and Pattie Hearst, in which they sing, in short panting lines, of oral sex. That gets you some idea of the naughtiness, in 1810 terms, of the _Epithalamium for Francis Revaillac and Charlotte Corday_.

And Fraistat's notes on the poems, biographical and interpetative, are first-rate. There are places he can be argued with (for example the events - background to two verse letters that may be the worst poems of Shelley's life - concerning a possible affair between Shelley's mother and Fergus Graham, where I think Shelley had inside information and his interpretation can be taken seriously) but he never strays from evidence and his interpretations of events and of poems are always reasonable and insightful.

The next volume will bring us Shelley's first great poem, _Queen Mab_, also _Alastor_, the shorter poems_Mont Blanc_, and the _Hymn to Intellectual Beauty_, and perhaps the restored epic _Laon and Cythna_. This is a great project, and my only criticism is that it at least 100 years overdue. My absolute highest recommendation to Shelley readers. Note to Fraistat et al: More volumes please!

Cheers!

Laon (no relation) ... Read more

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Shelley's short, prolific life produced some of the most memorable and well-known lyrics of the Romantic period. But he was also the most radical writer in the English literary tradition of his day, a fiery political visionary committed to social change and progress. The generous selection in this volume represents the wide range of his writing, both poetry and prose. Arranged chronologically, the accompanying introductory essays set Shelley's works in their historical, social and political context. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great Edition for Most, Inexpensive for All
Everyone inevitably has a favorite among the young English Romantic poets - Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Keats -, but all three are among the language's best and have individual strengths. Shelley is second to Keats in pure beauty and second to Byron in sheer readability and humor but excels both in intellectual vigor and is also arguably the most original and the best craftsman. Even most of the greatest poets find it hard to match beauty and craft with depth; only Alexander Pope and Thomas Hardy among English poets rival Shelley here. He wrote some of the greatest philosophical poems, focusing specifically on theology as well as other weighty subjects, yet manages to remain nearly always readable. However, he is not limited to this, also writing more than a few of the most blazingly beautiful love lyrics in English and as some of the most poignant paeans to nature and other forms of transcendence. Perhaps most impressively, may be the all-time greatest English political poet; his unabashed liberalism may turn off some, but the very quality of his political verse is nothing short of incredible. Though fervent in his beliefs and extremely extroverted, he never forgets that he is an artist; he was never didactic or preachy after Queen Mab, his somewhat heavy-handed debut poem, published when he was only twenty. His political works are engaging - and, above all, readable - without forgetting the importance of form. Whatever one thinks of Shelley's views, these poems are remarkable for showing just how far ahead of his time he was. Few people have ever been so radical for their era; it is hardly hyperbolic to say he would be a radical even now, two centuries later. Yet he was no mindless liberal but always ready and more than willing to justify his views intellectually and practically; his poems reflect this and are the better for it. Finally, Shelley's diversity and greatness showed themselves not least in his astonishing variety of poetic forms, several of which he introduced or pioneered. Few poets have contributed as much in this area, especially in such a brief career. A work like Prometheus Unbound has more variety than most poets manage in a lifetime, and Shelley was a master of forms ranging from the sonnet, which he pushed in new directions, to the mini epic. Suffice it to say that anyone even remotely serious about English poetry needs to own Shelley's poems.

As for this edition, it is ideal for most but will fall short for some. The main complaint is that, unlike many Wordsworth editions, it is incomplete. It has nearly all Shelley's poetry, but the long works Laon and Cythna, more famously republished as The Revolt of Islam, and Peter Bell the Third are here only in extracts. This will not be a problem for most, as they are not Shelley's best works. Some fans value Laon highly, but it is overlong and drags in parts. Those who like it here will be encouraged to seek out the whole, but the excisions will serve most readers well. Peter is near-universally considered one of Shelley's least significant works; a generally unsuccessful march on Byron's mock-epic territory that attacks William Wordsworth, whose conservative conversion both poets detested, it tries almost painfully hard to be funny but rarely is. Few will bemoan its loss.

There are several compensations even for those who will miss these works. Most importantly, several pieces not often included in such collections are here. Perhaps the most notable is The Cenci, Shelley's brilliant play. It is one of the most underrated English dramas and a great treat. His famous closet drama Prometheus Unbound is of course also included. Additionally, in contrast to most Wordsworth poetry editions, there is a generous prose selection. Here we see another area where Shelley outshined his fellow young Romantics and, indeed, nearly all other poets. It is a true compliment to his prose to say that it is nearly as good as his poetry. He wrote a significant amount of prose covering many topics, and this has six offerings aside from the various prefaces and notes to his poems, including the legendary ones for Queen Mab. The selection is by no means complete, about one hundred pages compared to 550 for the poetry, but is quite representative and will make the interested seek out the rest - no small accomplishment. "A Declaration of Rights" summarizes his case for Irish independence, a compelling argument and very far ahead of its time. "A Letter to Lord Ellenborough" concisely summarizes some of his arguments for freedom of the press as well as much of his articulate religious criticism. Shelley's outspokenness about this last was incredible for its era and unfortunately harmed him in several ways, but he is a leading light for skeptics to this day. Few religion critics have been as articulate and, indeed, convincing. "A Vindication of Natural Diet" is even more interesting, if less valuable in the wide sense. A vegetarian manifesto, it again shows Shelley well ahead of the proverbial curve. Even today, vegans would be very hard-pressed to find a more forceful and well-written justification; the arguments are very interesting, even if some - such as the claim that eating meat leads to violence - now seem overly novel or even naïve. "An Address to the People on the Death of Princess Charlotte" and "A Philosophical View of Reform" are probably Shelley's most thorough and important political prose writings. One gets from them a good sense of his views and comes away with admiration of his clear and persuasive writing, however much one agrees with the content. The latter is particularly comprehensive and impressive, especially since it is unfinished - not to mention that it was so progressive that it went unpublished for a century. Despite the title and like the other work, it has much practical content and is still very relevant. The book closes with "A Defense of Poetry," Shelley's most famous prose piece. It clearly shows that, on top of everything else, he was an immaculate critic. This magnificent work not only brilliantly and convincingly espouses Shelley's poetics but also makes one of the most compelling cases ever for poetry's usefulness - aesthetically as well as practically. It is of course somewhat self-serving, but even those who violently disagree will surely come away with a new appreciation of the subject and increased respect for Shelley's intellect and writing.

As for supplementary material, this has a surprising amount that will certainly be enough for most but will leave diehards dry. Unlike many Wordsworth poetry editions, there is an extensive introduction providing an overview of Shelley's life and thought, including a timeline, and an overview of each poem with some critical commentary. Also unlike most Wordsworth poetry volumes, there are footnotes; they are surprisingly extensive, clearing up nearly everything likely to elude but avoiding dense commentary. Title and first line indices make browsing easy and, again unlike some titles in the series, the print is quite large. Lack of line numbers will go unnoticed by many, but some readers will be annoyed, especially with the long poems. Finally, while not on par with more expensive editions', the binding is quite good; my copy has held up well over years of frequent browsing. All told, anyone looking for a near-comprehensive look at Shelley's poems and/or much of his prose while trying to avoid spending a lot of money could not do better. Those wanting a more concise introduction may be better off with a volume containing only his best work, though the inexpensiveness of this edition and the fact that it has prose mean one might as well go for it. Only those looking for complete and/or deluxe editions of the poems should look elsewhere, though the generous prose selections may entice even them.

A fine bargain edition
I would recommend this volume for all casual students and readers of Shelley.It is inexpensively priced, and I believe it contains all the pieces printed in Mary Shelley's 1839 version of her husband's "complete works," along with their corresponding prefaces (rarely provided in more insipid 'best of' collections of Shelley).However, I am unable to award this book a higher rating because it is plagued by some very glaring typographical errors and misprints (example: "and if the spark with which Heaven lit my spirit/Had been with purer nutriment supplied" from "The Triumph of Life" is presented as "purer sentiment" in the Wordsworth edition).Nevertheless, at less than 5 bucks, this book is a great introduction to the unjustly neglected poetic achievement of Shelley, in my opinion the supreme genius of the great triad of the younger Romantics.

Small Print makes reading hard
Personally, I thought the Poetry itself wasn't too bad.Unfortunately the print was way too small, making reading difficult. For that reason, it didn't hold my interest too well. I hope to return to the book again later, once I get my new prescription specs. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; Publication date: 1907; Subjects: Literary Criticism / Poetry; Poetry / General; Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / Poetry; Poetry / General; Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 2; Original Publisher: London : J. Ascham; Publication date: 1834; Subjects: Literary Criticism / Poetry; Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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In Two Volumes. This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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In Three Volumes. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more