Charles Lamb, Coleridge and Wordsworth : reading friendship in the 1790s / Felicity James.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

James, Felicity, 1978-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lamb, Charles, 1775-1834--Criticism and interpretation.

Lamb, Charles.

Lamb, Charles, 1775-1834--Friends and associates.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834--Friends and associates.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.

Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850--Friends and associates.

Wordsworth, William.

Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.

Lamb, Charles, 1775-1834.

English literature--18th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

Romanticism--Great Britain.

Romanticism.

Friends and associates.

Criticism and interpretation.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xiii, 265 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, [2008]

Summary:

From the raucous world of the Anti-Jacobin cartoon to lively conversations with Coleridge in the 'Salutation and Cat', Charles Lamb is right in the midst of the literary sociability of the 1790s - yet his part in the friendships, political networks and creative dialogues of the period has been overlooked. Arguing for a reconsideration of Lamb's early Unitarianism and allegiances to radical Dissent, James explores his exciting and varied works of the 1790s against a backdrop of social and political change. From playful forgeries and hoaxes to poignant family dramas and combative, vigorous, urban interpretations of Wordsworth, Lamb re-reads and re-writes many of the well-known narratives of Romanticism. Placing his little-known early works alongside Coleridge's conversation poems, Lyrical Ballads, The Borderers and The Ruined Cottage, this book uncovers the creative dynamics and the sociable conversations of early Romanticism. Moreover, understanding Lamb as writer, reader and friend gives us a valuable insight into how to read friendship itself in the 1790s.

Contents:

Introduction: Placing Lamb 1

Part I Idealising Friendship

1 Frendotatoi meta frendous: Constructing Friendship in the 1790s 13

December 1794 13

'Bowles, Priestley, Burke': The Morning Chronicle sonnets 18

New readings of familial and friendly affection 24

Pantisocracy and the 'family of soul' 26

Unitarian readings of friendship 30

Sensibility and benevolence 34

Reading David Hartley 39

Readings of feeling in Coleridge and Lamb 43

Lamb's sensibilities: two early sonnets 47

2 Rewritings of Friendship, 1796-1797 55

Spring 1796 55

Coleridge's rewritings of Lamb 56

Trapped in the Bower: Coleridgean reflections in retirement 62

'Ears of Sympathy': Lamb's sympathetic response 71

Rewritings of Coleridge 74

Part II Doubting Friendship

3 The 'Day of Horrors' 83

September 1796 83

Aftermath 85

Reconstructing the poetry of familial affection 91

Nether Stowey: 'an Elysium upon earth'? 96

4 'Cold, Cold, Cold': Loneliness and Reproach 101

June 1797 101

'Gloomy boughs' and sunny leaves: the Wordsworth-Coleridge conversation 103

Visions of unity: This Lime-tree Bower my Prison 105

The Overcoat and the Manchineel: Lamb's response 111

The 'Reft House' of the 'Nehemiah Higginbottom' sonnets 114

5 Blank Verse and Fears in Solitude 120

February 1798 120

Blank Verse and Lyrical Ballads 125

Midnight reproach 130

'Living without God in the World' 134

Edmund Oliver: forging a 'common identity' 136

Coleridge and the 'lying Angel' 139

Part III Reconstructing Friendship

6 A Text of Friendship: Rosamund Gray 145

Spring 1798 145

Anxieties of friendship: letters to Robert Lloyd 146

'Inscribed in friendship': the sensibility of Rosamund Gray 149

The novel's family loyalties 152

Rosamund Gray and The Ruined Cottage 155

Communities of feeling in Rosamund Gray 163

7 Sympathy, Allusion, and Experiment in John Woodvil 167

Late 1798 167

Redemptive family narratives 169

Elian identifications 173

Forgeries and medleys: Lamb's imitations of Burton 176

'Friend Lamb': John Woodvil and its readers 177

Reading and resistance: 'What is Jacobinism?' 180

8 The Urban Romantic: Lamb's Landscapes of Affection 185

Early 1801 185

Reading Lyrical Ballads (1800) 188

Lamb's Wordsworthian attachments 195

The voice of the 'Londoner' 200

'The greatest egotist of all': some Elian sympathies 203

Wordsworth's readings of Lamb 210

Lamb's afterlives 211.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230545243

0230545246

OCLC:

226357047