A SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF

BRITISH ROMANTIC POETRY & PROSE

Dr Nicholas Halmi

Updated 1 January 2009


General studies

Literary and intellectual history | Poetic forms | Women writers | Gothic | Novel | Drama |

Social and political context | Sister arts | Reference works

Individual authors (listed chronologically)

Burke | Cowper | Barbauld | Hannah More | Charlotte Smith | Burney | Godwin | Blake |

Mary Robinson | Wollstonecraft | Helen Maria Williams | Radcliffe | Edgeworth |

Wordsworth | Scott | Coleridge | Lamb | Austen | Hazlitt | De Quincey | T.L. Peacock |

Byron | P.B. Shelley | Clare | Hemans | Keats | Mary Shelley | L.E. Landon

Electronic texts


GENERAL STUDIES

LITERARY AND INTELLECTUAL HISTORY:

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Romantic poetic forms are surveyed in

Women writers of the period are studied in

Helpful reference works are

For texts and bibliographies of woman writers not included here, see Adriana Craciun's Woman Romantic Writers page and Thomas Crochunis's and Michael Eberle-Sinatra's British Women Playwrights around 1800.

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The novel is discussed in

The Gothic is examined in

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Romantic-era drama, particularly by women, has received increased attention in recent years. Studies include

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SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT:

The impact of the Industrial Revolution on British society is discussed in

David Miall has compiled a bibliography of scholarship on travel and landscape.

Marilyn Gaull's English Romanticism: The Human Context (1988) is a very handy compendium of information about the period.

SISTER ARTS

On architecture specifically see

On music see

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REFERENCE WORKS:

The Wordsworth Circle and The Keats-Shelley Journal publish annual review issues devoted to recent books on Romantic topics; current scholarship is also reviewed in Romanticism on the Net and Romantic Circles.

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EDMUND BURKE (172997)

EDITIONS:

The Enquiry and Reflections are also available in good Oxford World's Classics paperback editions.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

On Burke's prominent place in the history of the concept of the sublime, see

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WILLIAM COWPER (17311800)

EDITIONS:

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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ANNA LAETITIA BARBAULD (17431825)

EDITIONS:

There is a hypertext edition of the Poems (1773) on the Romantic Circles site, and numerous individual poems are available on Mary Mark Ockerbloom's Anna Barbauld page. Molly Beverstein and Laura Mandell have edited some of the prose works online.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

Daniel White maintains a bibliography of Barbauld scholarship.

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HANNAH MORE (1745–1833)

EDITIONS:

Selected Writings, ed. R. Hole (1996)

Various texts are available in the anthologies listed above.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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CHARLOTTE SMITH (17491806)

EDITIONS:

CRITICISM:

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FRANCES (FANNY) BURNEY (1752–1840)

EDITIONS:

The four novels, Evelina, Cecilia, Camilla, and The Wanderer are all available as Oxford World's Classics paperbacks. Evelina is also available in Penguin (1994), Norton Critical (1997), and Broadview (2000) paperback editions.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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WILLIAM GODWIN (1756–1836)

EDITIONS:

Caleb Williams and St. Leon are available in Oxford World's Classics, Caleb Williams and Fleetwood in Broadview paperback editions. For the Memoir of Mary Wollstonecraft see below.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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WILLIAM BLAKE (1757–1827)

EDITIONS:

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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MARY ROBINSON (1758–1800)

EDITIONS:

Numerous poems are also available on the Web: see the last section of this bibliography. A collected edition under the general editorship of W. D. Brewer is forthcoming in 2009–10.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (175997)

EDITIONS:

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS (1761–1827)

EDITIONS:

Poems on Various Subjects (1823) is available online. Woodstock Books has published facsimile editions of Letters Written in France (1989), Poems 1786 (1994), Paul and Virginia (1994)

CRITICISM:

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ANN RADCLIFFE (17641823)

EDITIONS:

There are Oxford World's Classics paperback editions of The Italian, The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Romance of the Forest, and A Sicilian Romance; there are Arno Press facsimile editions of these novels and of The Castles of Athlin and Gaston de Blondeville.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

See also the section on the Gothic.

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MARIA EDGEWORTH (1768–1849)

EDITIONS:

The Works, gen. ed. M. Butler (12 vols., 1999-2003)

Oxford World's Classics publishes Castle Rackrent, The Absentee, and Belinda; Penguin publishes Castle Rackrent, The Absentee, and Ormond (with Belinda and Patronage forthcoming); Everyman publishes Belinda, Leonora, and Letters for Literary Ladies.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770–1850)

EDITIONS:

The 1799, 1805, and 1850 versions of The Prelude are printed together in a good Norton Critical Edition (1979). A Norton edition of the Poetry and Prose (including the 1805 version of The Prelude) is in preparation.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

Dorothy Wordsworth's Journals, ed. E. de Selincourt (2 vols., 1941), contain valuable biographical information. There are updated Oxford paperback editions:

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SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771–1832)

EDITIONS:

Of the numerous paperback editions of the novels, those in Oxford World's Classics series (e.g. The Antiquary, The Bride of Lammermoor, The Heart of Midlothian, Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward, Redgauntlet, Rob Roy, and Waverley) tend to be the best edited.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

See also the general entry for the novel.

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SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772–1834)

EDITIONS:

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

An Oxford Handbook to Coleridge with 38 chapters by various contributors is scheduled for publication in 2009.

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CHARLES LAMB (1775–1834)

EDITIONS:

There are numerous paperback editions of the Tales from Shakespeare.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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JANE AUSTEN (17751817)

EDITIONS:

The novels are available in paperback in Oxford World's Classics (1990–98; new eds., 2003–4), new Penguin (1995–), new Everyman (1991–96), Broadview (1994–2002; rev. ed. of Northanger Abbey, 2002), and Norton Critical (1994–2001) editions; the new Penguins use the texts of the first editions.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

F.B. Pinion's Jane Austen Companion (1979) and Paul Poplawski's Jane Austen Encyclopedia (1998) are useful reference works. See also the general entry for the novel.

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WILLIAM HAZLITT (1778–1830)

EDITIONS:

Hazlitt's Selected Writings are available in Penguin and Oxford World's Classics paperbacks.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

A biography by Duncan Wu is in preparation.

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THOMAS DE QUINCEY (1785–1859)

EDITIONS:

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK (1785–1866)

EDITIONS:

Four of the novels are available in paperback: Nightmare Abbey [and] Crotchet Castle (Penguin), Headlong Hall [and] Cyril Grange (Oxford World's Classics). The "Four Ages of Poetry" is available in Romantic Critical Essays, ed. D. Bromwich (1987).

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON (1788–1824)

EDITIONS:

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

Romantic Circles hosts a searchable Byron Chronology.

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PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792–1822)

EDITIONS:

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

Romantic Circles hosts a searchable Shelley Chronology. MSS are reproduced in two series, both under the editorship of Donald Reiman: Manuscripts of the Younger Romantics: Shelley (9 vols., 1985–) and The Bodleian Shelley Manuscripts (23 vols., 1986–).

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JOHN CLARE (1793–1864)

EDITIONS:

The standard scholarly edition has appeared under the general editorship of Eric Robinson: Early Poems, 1804–1822 (2 vols., 1989), Poems of the Middle Period, 1822–1837 (5 vols., 19962003), Later Poems, 1837–1846 (2 vols., 1984), Natural History Prose Writings (1984), Autobiographical Writings (1983), and The Letters (1985).

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

Many important articles on Clare have been published in the John Clare Society Journal (1982).

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FELICIA HEMANS (17931835)

EDITION:

Numerous texts are also available on the Web. The 1828 edition of Records of Woman is available both online and in a printed facsimile edition (1991).

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

Nanora Sweet has compiled an online bibliography of primary and secondary materials relating to Hemans.

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JOHN KEATS (17951821)

EDITIONS:

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY (1797–1851)

EDITIONS:

The novels are available in a variety of good paperback editions, listed here by title and publisher:

The Mortal Immortal is available online. MSS of Frankenstein are reproduced in Manuscripts of the Younger Romantics: Shelley, vol. 9 (1996).

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

See also the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Chronology and Resource Site.

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LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON ("L.E.L.," 180238)

EDITIONS:

Selected Writings, ed. J. McGann and D. Riess (1997)

Selections from The Improvisatrice (1824) and other works are available online, and her Poetical Works and Tales and Sketches have been reprinted in facsimile editions (1990 and 1999, respectively). There is an excellent hypertext edition of LEL's "Verses" and the Keepsake for 1829 on the Romantic Circles site.

BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM:

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ELECTRONIC TEXTS

Numerous Romantic texts (particularly shorter poems) are available on the World Wide Web, and most of them can be downloaded and printed free of charge. One source of texts is the University of Toronto's Representative Poetry anthology. Links to other text archives (e.g. Virginia's "British Poetry, 1780-1910") are provided on the Romanticism page of The Voice of the Shuttle and on the links page of Romanticism on the Net. Many works by woman writers of the time are more easily accessible on the Web than in print, and links to them may be found on Adriana Craciun's site (see above) . David Miall's Romanticism: CD-ROM (1997; included since 2000 with Duncan Wu's Romanticism: An Anthology) contains numerous Romantic texts as well as illustrated materials relating to the period.

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Bibliography © Nicholas Halmi, 2009