Down to the sunless sea : a troubled Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the Mediterranean / Andrew Edwards and Suzanne Edwards.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Edwards, Andrew, author.

Edwards, Suzanne, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834--Travel--Europe, Southern.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.

Authors, English--19th century.

Authors, English.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (204 pages)

Place of Publication:

United Kingdom : Liverpool University Press, [2023]

Summary:

Down to the Sunless Sea explores the time Coleridge spent in Gibraltar, Malta, Sicily and mainland Italy, where he had planned to recover his health, escape the clutches of opium and gain inspiration from the landscape; however, the reality would prove very different. After his short sojourn in Gibraltar, Coleridge arrived in Malta, where he became acquainted with the British Governor, Alexander Ball. He settled into Maltese life, initially taking on the role of acting Under-Secretary. Travelling to Sicily, Coleridge embraced the island's landscapes but was shaken to find the opium poppy was an important local crop. The Mediterranean would not prove the solution to his addiction. He visited the Consul, G. F. Leckie, and was invited to stay with him at a house on the site of Timoleon's Roman villa. The poet visited the antiquities of Syracuse and at the opera house encountered the soprano, Anna-Cecilia Bertozzi, nearly succumbing to her charms. Back in Malta, he was offered rooms in the Treasury building (now the Casino Maltese) and took up the post of Public Secretary. Legal pronouncements in Italian bear Coleridge's signature. Leaving behind these matters of state, he drifted through the Italian peninsula, engaging with a coterie of artistic ex-pats when in Rome. His listless, half-hearted, and financially embarrassed attempts at the Grand Tour included a narrow escape from French troops. Coleridge's Mediterranean sojourn impacted on his life and writing, not to mention his health, which saw a marked decline, leading to his final years in Highgate under the roof of a friendly doctor. Down to the Sunless Sea is a literary reflection on the fact that the sun-filled Mediterranean was not the tonic he had first imagined.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Edwards, Andrew Down to the Sunless Sea

ISBN:

1-83764-558-2