Description
Book SynopsisA study of philosopher George Berkeley's influence on British Romantic poetry, and especially the works of William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Percy Bysshe Shelley that offers new readings of Berkeley's works and the development of his style as a writer.
Trade ReviewIn this book, Townsend argues for "a pervasive 'Berkeleian' undercurrent in the major English Romantic canon" (p. 17), specifically, the poetry of Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Shelley. In the opening chapter, Townsend offers what he calls "an original reading of Berkeley's work" (p. 9). He presents the centrality of spirit in Berkeley's ontology and his conception of nature as a divine visual language as key themes that connect Berkeley with the Romantic poets. Each of the remaining four chapters is devoted to one of the four poets. * Choice *
Townsend's study is essential reading for any scholar with an interest in the philosophy of the Romantic period, its reception of Enlightenment, and its thinking about poetic form. * Tom Marshall, British Association of Romantic Studies *
Table of ContentsPart One Introduction: Ghostly Language 1: Berkeley and the Language of Philosophy Part Two 2: Spiritual Bodies and Mental Realities in Blake 3: Inside Outness in Coleridge 4: Wordsworth's Ghostly Language 5: Shelley's Uncreative Mind Conclusion: Berkeley and Romanticism
