Constructing Coleridge The Posthumous Life of the Author [Hardcover]

Constructing Coleridge examines Coleridge's penchant for re-invention and carefully demonstrates how the Coleridge family editors followed his lead in constructing his posthumous reputation. Following his death in 1834, the family editors faced immediate scandals and sought to construct the Coleridge they preferred in these trying circumstances.Acknowledgements Introduction 'Once a Jacobin Always a Jacobin' 'Ungentlemanly Productions': De Quincey and Scandal 'Henry's Book' Coleridge the Plagiarist Her Father's 'Remains': Editing and Filial Love Biographia Literaria, Sara Coleridge, and Self-Creation Posterity and Writing 'for the Day' Collecting Coleridge Notes Bibliography Index

'Alan Vardy has written an absorbing study about the making of Coleridge both about Coleridge's own attempts to forge an image of himself for public consumption, and also about the ways in which his family and followers sought to re-create him in various ways during his long posthumous afterlife. Vardy tells his story with great scholarship and sympathy, in a book that all admirers of Coleridge will want to read.' - Seamus Perry, Lecturer in English, University of Oxford, UK

'Vardy's book offers fresh perspectives and adds a lot of detail...' - H.J. Jackson at TLS

ALAN VARDY?is an Associate Professor of English at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA. He is the author of John Clare, Politics and Poetry (Palgrave, 2003). He lives with his family in Cold Spring, New York.