Romanticism on the Road The Marginal Gains of Wordsworth's Homeless [Hardcover]

Romanticism on the Road challenges critical orthodoxy by arguing that Wordsworth rejected the political dogmas of his age. Refusing to ally with either radicals or conservatives after the French Revolution, the poet seizes on vagrants to attack the binary thinking dominating public affairs and to question the value of the Georgian domestic ideal. Drawing on current and historical discussions of homelessness, the study offers a cultural history of vagrancy and explains why Wordsworth chose the homeless to bear his message.Acknowledgements Introduction: Homelessness Yesterday and Today: Repression of Relief? Unsettling Powers in the Early Landscapes Salisbury Plain and the Recuperation of Freedom Life During Wartime in Lyrical Ballads Suspicious Lives: Delinquency in the 1802 Poems Errant Thoughts and Social Crimes in The Prelude Bibliography Index

'...Benis is excellent at describing the social and historical background to Wordsworth's early career, and the book contains some fascinating information...his presentation of contemporary political events remains fascinating and clearly written...the book is a valuable contribution to Wordsworth studies.' - John Hayden Baker, Times Literary Supplement

Toby R. Benis is Assistant Professor of English at Saint Louis University.