British Poets - Literary Biography, English Poetry - 19th Century - Literary Criticism

William Wordsworth

Name: William Wordsworth
Author: John Williams
ISBN: 9780312158644

by John Williams

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Overview

In William Wordsworth: A Literary Life, John Williams provides an absorbing account of the evolution of the poet's literary career. An invaluable introduction to Wordsworth and English Romanticism, the book also challenges a number of commonly-held assumptions. At the outset, Williams disputes the claim made by some recent critics that Wordsworth's early years were relatively carefree, and he goes on to assess the difficulties that beset him as a young poet with radical political sympathies attempting to publish his work during the turbulent years of the 1790s and early 1800s. Wordsworth's increasingly ambivalent attitude towards seeking out a public readership beyond his immediate circle of friends and admirers is a central concern of the book, as is the pervasively autobiographical nature of the poetry he wrote. Fresh insights are offered on both the early Hawkshead years, and on the nature of Wordsworth's shifting political allegiances, leading to a reappraisal of the later poetry so frequently ignored by critics on the grounds of its inferiority. While not disputing the fact that Wordsworth's poetical powers diminished after 1820, Williams seeks to reinstate the later work as an important, rewarding and worthwhile field of study.

About the Author, John Williams

John Williams

John Williams (1922-1994) was born and raised in northeast Texas. Despite a talent for writing and acting, Williams flunked out of a local junior college after his first year. He reluctantly joined the war effort, enlisting in the Army Air Corps, and managing to write a draft of his first novel while there. Once home, Williams found a small publisher for the novel and enrolled at the University of Denver, where he was eventually to receive both his B.A. and M.A., and where he was to return as an instructor in 1954.

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Booknews

An absorbing account of the poet's literary career which challenges the claim that Wordsworth's early years were relatively carefree, and offers fresh insights on both the early Hawkshead years, and on the nature of Wordsworth's shifting political allegiances<-->leading to a reappraisal of the later poetry. Of central concern is Wordsworth's ambivalent attitude towards seeking out a public readership, as is the pervasively autobiographical nature of the poetry he wrote. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.