Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Biography

This major biography of Shelley, England’s most radical and controversial Romantic poet, is the first to appear in thirty years. Informed by the author’s extensive research, psychological insight, and recent scholarship on Shelley and his circle, the biography stresses the intimate relationship between the poet’s writing and his complex personality.

James Bieri draws upon his dual background as a Shelley scholar and a psychologist to create a compelling narrative of Shelley’s multifaceted life. Shelley’s personality transcends any entreaty either to see it "plain" or to be labeled with a clinical diagnosis. Remarkably resilient, he was continually creative despite intervals of depression and periodic, hallucinatory panic attacks. Fascinated by the human psyche, he incorporated into his poetry his own self-analysis, including a remarkably sophisticated theory of love that provided the title to his most powerful erotic poem, Epipsychidion.

Bieri also probes Shelley's numerous emotional, romantic, and familial entanglements. Based on the author’s twenty years of research, the book includes new information on the discovery of Shelley’s older illegitimate half-brother; important letters of his father and grandfather; his mother’s early life, her letters about young Shelley, and her major influence upon Shelley; the first published portrait of Sophia Stacey, who beguiled Shelley in Florence; and further evidence on Shelley’s secretly adopted Neapolitan infant.

This biography offers a sympathetic and nuanced view of Shelley’s tumultuous life, personality, and poetry.

The Johns Hopkins University Press

This major biography of Shelley, England's most radical and controversial Romantic poet, is the first to appear in thirty years. Informed by the author's extensive research, psychological insight, and recent scholarship on Shelley and his circle, the biography stresses the intimate relationship between the poet's writing and his complex personality.

James Bieri draws upon his dual background as a Shelley scholar and a psychologist to create a compelling narrative of Shelley's multifaceted life. Shelley's personality transcends any entreaty either to see it "plain" or to be labeled with a clinical diagnosis. Remarkably resilient, he was continually creative despite intervals of depression and periodic, hallucinatory panic attacks. Fascinated by the human psyche, he incorporated into his poetry his own self-analysis, including a remarkably sophisticated theory of love that provided the title to his most powerful erotic poem, Epipsychidion.

Bieri also probes Shelley's numerous emotional, romantic, and familial entanglements. Based on the author's twenty years of research, the book includes new information on the discovery of Shelley's older illegitimate half-brother; important letters of his father and grandfather; his mother's early life, her letters about young Shelley, and her major influence upon Shelley; the first published portrait of Sophia Stacey, who beguiled Shelley in Florence; and further evidence on Shelley's secretly adopted Neapolitan infant.

This biography offers a sympathetic and nuanced view of Shelley's tumultuous life, personality, and poetry.

Megan Hodge - Library Journal

A retired professor of psychology, Bieri has an unconventional background for a biographer, which allows him to provide fresh insight into the life of romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The book opens with a confusing history of the Shelley family, which revolves around multiple generations of family members with the same names, who continue to be mentioned throughout. Illustrations of many of them are provided, but a family tree would have been more illuminating. Interestingly, though, Bieri had access to primary sources unavailable to previous biographers and is able to contradict details discussed by his predecessors, such as whether Shelley's first love got engaged before or after Shelley's marriage. Bieri has liberally laced his comprehensive history with quotations from letters and biographies written by Shelley and his contemporaries and includes copious notes and an exhaustive index; a glossary to keep the many names straight would have been a great bonus. Recommended for all academic libraries.

James Bieri is a retired professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin.