Unfamiliar Shelley

Stimulated by new editions of Shelley's writings and the evidence of notebooks, the editors have assembled an outstanding group of international Shelley scholars to work through the implications of recent advances in scholarship. With particular attention to texts that have been neglected or underestimated, the contributors consider many important aspects of Shelley's prolific and remarkably diverse output, including the verse letter, plays, prose essays, satire, pamphlets, political verse, romance, prefaces, translations from the Greek, prose style, artistic representations, fragments and early writings. Revaluations of Shelley's youthful works, often criticized for their over-exuberance, pay dividends as they reveal Shelley's early maturation as a writer and also shed light on his later achievement. Taken as a whole, the collection makes evident that Shelley's reputation has been based largely on surprisingly imperfect and incomplete edited publications, driven by Victorian taste and culture. A writer very different from the one we thought we knew emerges from these essays, which are sure to inspire more reappraisals of Shelley's work.

’...This sizable collation, from an international cast of scholars, gives Shelley the systematic, archival ventilation received in abundance by William Wordsworth...The riches range from new arguments...to intriguing local details...Shelley studies are well positioned to conjure new theoretical models out of this work...Highly recommended.’ Choice ’... readers of Shelley can be thankful both for the excellence of the essays in this book and the energy that impels them.’ New Books on Literature-19 'The Unfamiliar Shelley demonstrate[s] that it is not only Shelley’s major, well-known poems and prose statements such as Adonais, Prometheus Unbound, and A Defence of Poetry which embody the complex synthesis on compressed and reflexive imagery, multiple meanings, and distinct but deliberately interwoven psychological perspectives that has lent Shelley’s verse its well-deserved reputation for formidable complexity and unparalleled craftsmanship. The less-frequented byways of his work exemplify these same signature traits. Explicating a poem or essay by any other major Romantic poets - indeed, by any other poet regardless of his or her era - seems like child’s play by comparison.' European Legacy

Alan M. Weinberg is Professor of English Studies at the University of South Africa, RSA. Timothy Webb is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, UK where, until recently, he was Winterstoke Professor.