Biographia Literaria

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Overview

Samuel Taylor Coleridge intended Biographia Literaria to be a short preface to a collection of his poems, Sibylline Leaves (1817). However, it quickly expanded into a two-volume autobiography, mixing memoir, philosophy, religion and literary theory, and was heavily influenced by German criticism, the evaluation and interpretation of literature. Coleridge himself described Biographia Literaria as an 'immethodical miscellany' of 'life and opinions'. In 1906, the poet Arthur Symons called the work 'the greatest book of criticism in English, and one of the most annoying books in any language'.

Poetic theory in Biographia Literaria

Biographia Literaria includes some of the most important English writing on poetic theory. Some of it is a response to ideas of poetry advanced by his close friend and collaborator William Wordsworth, first in the 1800 preface to their joint publication Lyrical Ballads and then in the preface to Wordsworth's Collected Poems (1815). Referring to the latter, Coleridge says he wants in Biographia Literaria to make clear 'on what points I coincide with the opinions in that preface, and in what points I altogether differ'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781545391570
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	04/16/2017
Pages:	458
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.93(d)

About the Author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 - 25 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture. He coined many familiar words and phrases, including the celebrated suspension of disbelief. He was a major influence on Emerson, and American transcendentalism.

Throughout his adult life, Coleridge suffered from crippling bouts of anxiety and depression; it has been speculated by some that he suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition not identified during his lifetime. Coleridge suffered from poor health that may have stemmed from a bout of rheumatic fever and other childhood illnesses. He was treated for these concerns with laudanum, which fostered a lifelong opium addiction.