The Life of William Wordsworth: A Critical Biography

It is no secret that William Wordsworth’s early years were marked by poverty.  But just how important was a lack of money in shaping the poet’s character and career? By delving deeply into the circumstances of Wordsworth’s early years, biographer John Worthen reshapes our understanding of the great Romantic poet’s most creative period of life and writing. We discover how rebellious and pig–headed the young Wordsworth needed to be in order to survive; we observe the critical role Dorothy played in unleashing her brother’s poetic genius; we realize the importance of Lakeland’s “Dove Cottage” to him (it was wonderfully cheap); we appreciate the nature of the great “philosophical” poem The Recluse , which occupied so much of Wordsworth’s poetic career; and we understand the importance (far too often under–rated) of Samuel Taylor Coleridge to him.Scholarly and thought–provoking, The Life of William Wordsworth: A Critical Biography breathes fresh life into the long life and extensive work of Wordsworth; it adds a new layer of complexity to our understanding of the life and works of this giant of English literature.

John Worthen is Emeritus Professor, University of Nottingham. His books include D. H. Lawrence: The Early Years 1885–1912 (1991), The Gang: Coleridge, the Hutchinsons & the Wordsworths in 1802 (2001), D. H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider (2005), Robert Schumann: Life and Death of a Musician (2007), and The Cambridge Introduction to Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2010).