What is it about?

Even though scholars are basically aware that writers often publish multiple versions of their work, they interpret literary works as if the text they use is the only one in existence and that everyone from the time of publication has read that same text. Typically, this results in use of a late or final text to understand a biographical or historical circumstance many years earlier. With respect to Coleridge, for example, I have read many scholars referring to an 1829 version of a poem as if it were the version published in 1798. This study of mine attempts to do justice to texts that exist in multiple versions. By treating various versions of Coleridge's poetry and prose as separate works, it is possible not only to uncover more time sensitive shifts in authorial intent, but also more ephemeral cultural and historical moments that would otherwise be lost. Since my concept of versions considers as well where a text is situated in a particular book, and the accompanying texts, the intent of editors and their choices can be examined and questioned. Thus, this study of mine should be of interest to literary scholars, literary editors, specialists in British culture and history.

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Why is it important?

This is one of the few books that offers an assessment of Coleridge from a rigorously materialist perspective. It is the only work that takes into account the fact that Coleridge changed his works to reflect not only a change in mind, but also in response to readers and cultural change.

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This page is a summary of: Coleridge, Revision and Romanticism : After the Revolution, 1793–1818, January 2009, Bloomsbury Academic,
DOI: 10.5040/9781474211314.
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