The Poems of Shelley: Volume Two: 1817 - 1819

• New datings and contextual exposition of the major works
• Fully annotated and arranged in chronological order!
• Research based on manuscripts in the Bodlean Library!

This second of three volumes to be published in all, and the first since 1989, The Poems of Shelley, Volume 2, is fully annotated and organized in chronological order while offering significant new datings and contextual exposition of the major works and comprehensive treatments of the best known shorter poems. The authors make use of the Shelley manuscripts in the Bodlean Library and draw on the substantial new research which has appeared over the last 10 years. The Poems of Shelley, Volume 2, contains approximatley 70 Shelley works including Prometheus Unbound, Laon and Cythna, Julian and Maddalo, The Cenci, Shelley's translations from the Greek, including his highly original translation of Euripides' The Cyclops, as well as, some of Shelley's best known shorter poems, such as 'Lines written among the Euganean Hills' and 'Ozymandias'. The second Volume includes substantial items by three contributing editiors. Jack Donovan, University of York, has edited Laon and Cythna. Ralph Pite, the University of Liverpool, has edited Julian and Maddalo. Michael Rossington, the University of Newcastle, has edited The Cenci. This is the latest work in the highly respected Longman Annotated English Poets series.

Kelvin Everest is Bradley Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Liverpool.

The late Geoffrey Matthews wasReader in English at the University of Reading.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was one of the major Romantic poets, and wrote what is critically recognised as some of the finest lyric poetry in the English language. This is the second volume of the five-volume The Poems of Shelley, which presents all of Shelley's poems in chronological order and with full annotation. Date and circumstances of composition are provided for each poem and all manuscript and printed sources relevant to establishing an authoritative text are freshly examined and assessed. Headnotes and footnotes furnish the personal, literary, historical and scientific information necessary to an informed reading of Shelley's varied and allusive verse.

This volume makes extensive use of the Shelley manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and draws on the substantial recent research which has appeared on Shelley's text and contexts, and on members of his circle such as Mary Shelley, Byron, Godwin and others. It offers significant new datings and contextual exposition of major works including Prometheus Unbound, Laon and Cythna, 'Julian and Maddalo', The Cenci, and Shelley's translations from the Greek, notably his highly original translation of Euripides' The Cyclops. There are also comprehensive treatments of some of Shelley's best known shorter poems, such as 'Lines written among the Euganean Hills' and 'Ozymandias'.

The annotation demonstrates the extraordinary range and richness of Shelley's literary intelligence, and situates his work in the revolutionary politics and social upheavals of the early nineteenth century. The text and annotation are supported by an extensive bibliography, a chronology, indexes, and appendices which include a detailed examination of the history of the Cenci story. The volumes of The Poems of Shelley form the most comprehensive edition of Shelley's poetry available to students and scholars.