Description
Book SynopsisA critical look at three fundamental Romantic poets from a leading scholar of British romanticism
Trade Review"His intriguing interrogations open up realms of scholarship, and his treatments are authoritative and convincing."--
Choice"This collection will please and inform readers. It is a sampler of the best of Stillinger, illustrating the critical consequences of fine editorial observations and modeling how seamless literary editing and literary analysis can be."--
Keats-Shelley Journal"This enjoyable and engaging volume collects pieces from across a long and distinguished career, usefully gathering between hard covers several old familiars as well as a few less expected things."--
Keats-Shelley Review"Jack Stillinger helpfully brings together in
Romantic Complexity a selection of his most important critical writings from the past three decades. . . . This book gives us several opportunities to ponder the relationship of Romantic scholarship to broader technological and cultural change."--
1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics and Inquiries in The Early Modern Era“Stillinger’s signature style and major strengths are in evidence in this collection. . . . [He] is still asking major questions, identifying central problems, and providing illuminating, sensible answers and solutions for students and professors of Romantic literature.”--
Studies in Romanticism“A highly engaging read, full of arresting (and often quirky) insights, entertaining classroom reminiscence, and impressive scholarship that is the fruit of five decades’ sustained attention to the poets concerned.”--
Forum of Modern Language Studies“The essays assembled for
Romantic Complexity show Jack Stillinger working and writing through a half century of critical conversation, often in the thick of controversies. At each turn he has not just addressed the major, most urgent questions; he has shaped the discussion with erudite intelligence, textual rigor, bracing skepticism, and exemplary generosity. His students and colleagues will welcome
Romantic Complexity as ‘the best of Stillinger’ on a wide range of concerns, but especially on the three poets who have focused his sharp regard, loving attention, and professional enthusiasm.”--Susan J. Wolfson, professor of English, Princeton University
Table of ContentsPreface vii
Part 1: Keats Essays
1. What Keats Is About 3
2. Keats and Wordsworth 20
3. Keats and Coleridge 41
4. Reading Keats's Plots 62
5. Keats's Extempore Effusions and the Question of Intentionality 77
6. Multiple Readers, Multiple Texts, Multiple Keats 89
7. The "Story" of Keats 112
Part 2: Wordsworth and Coleridge
8. Textual Primitivism and the Editing of Wordsworth 129
9. Pictorialism and Matter-of-Factness in Coleridge's Poems of Somerset 152
10. The Multiple Versions of Coleridge's Poems: How Many
Mariners Did Coleridge Write? 166
11. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Shaggy Dog: The Novelty of
Lyrical Ballads (1798) 183
Part 3: Romantics and the Classroom
12. Fifty-nine Ways of Reading
Ode on a Grecian Urn 201
13. Refurbish or Perish 208
14. Glossing the Romantics: Texts for Students 215
15. The Romantics and Sputnik 222
Abbreviations 225
Notes 227
References 243
Credits 255
Index 257
