Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Three years after the first publication of Lyrical Ballads, the world changed. If not significantly for many, than immensely for a few: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, his poetic counterpart William Wordsworth, and the three women who dominated their mental and emotional landscape: Wordsworth's sister Dorothy, his future wife Mary Hutchinson, and her sister Sara, adored by the ill-married Coleridge. In 1802, deep in the Lake District's close quarters, tensions ran high, the moment a crucible for some of the finest lyric poetry of our age. Working from letters, diaries, and poems, John Worthen magnificently unravels the weave of emotion, excitement, and frustration that characterized the turning point of one of the most famously complex friendships in English letters." Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)