The Hidden Wordsworth: Poet, Lover, Rebel, Spy

Kenneth R. Johnston, Kenneth R.. Johnston

W. W. Norton & Company, 1998 - Biography & Autobiography - 965 pages

A surprise-filled biography of the radical young poet whose fiery intellect revolutionized English poetry, The Hidden Wordsworth breaks through the carefully crafted but frequently misleading accounts of his youth that William Wordsworth created in his later years. In this enthralling narrative, the great Romantic poet emerges as a man of action during his youth and early manhood, when, in Wordsworth's own words, "Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven!" Kenneth Johnston explores Wordsworth's links with radical British reformists, French revolutionary leaders, and journalists, and, astonishingly, reveals Wordsworth as an agent for the British "Secret Service" on the Continent and at home. Deeply intertwined with his politics, Wordsworth's emotional life has until now been even more deeply buried. Johnston illuminates and freshly interprets Wordsworth's relations with his sister, Dorothy, with his French mistress, Annette Vallon, and with his sister-in-law, Sara Hutchinson. At the same time, The Hidden Wordsworth explores the poet's intense and often destructive relations with a cluster of young writers, leading up to his friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the most productive, if highly fraught, collaborations in literary history. Based on new research in government archives in England and France, school and university records, and intimate letters, The Hidden Wordsworth is a warts-and-all account of a young poet who lived a life even Byron would have envied.

What people are saying

THE HIDDEN WORDSWORTH: Poet, Lover, Rebel, Spy

User Review  - Jane Doe - Kirkus

As admirers of William Wordsworth's epochal Lyrical Ballads celebrate that volume's bicentennial, this conscientious yet surprise-filled life of the poet will deepen their appreciation of his ...

The hidden Wordsworth: poet, lover, rebel, spy

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

From the Lyrical Ballads to the epic poem Prelude, Wordsworth expresses the "natural supernaturalism" and the radical individualism of the Romantic movement. In exhaustive, and sometimes exhausting ...

Contents

• Images of Wordsworth: 3
• THE CHILD IS FATHER: 15
• The Vale ofEsthwaite: 42
• While We Were Schoolboys: 69
• Verses from the Impulse of My Own Mind: 93
• Stranger Lounger Lover: 111
• Young LoveLiking: 135
• Weighing the Man in the Balance: 155
• Something of a Republic: 175
• Golden Hours: 188
• Golden Days and Giddy Prospects: 203
• OF THE: 233
• The Mighty Mind: 264
• Revolution and Romance: 284
• Castaway: 329
• A Return to France?: 358
• The Evidence of Speculation: 378
• Legacy Hunting: 401
• Philanthropy or Treason?: 427
• Of Cabbages and Radicals: 468
• An Independent Intellect: 494
• The Spy and the Mariner: 516
• The Mariner and the Recluse: 550
• Triumphs of Failure: 565
• Wye Wandering: 588
• Mr Wordsworth: 609
• Writing in SelfDefense: 630
• Destination Unknown: 654
• PART III: 655
• WHAT IS A POET?: 671
• We Have Learnt to Know Its Value 6: 673
• Home at Grasmere: 697
• A k a Lyrical Ballads: 721
• Selling the Book Creating the Poet: 751
• Peace Marriage Inheritance: 769
• Disciples and Partners: 792
• The End of The Prelude: 810
• Presenting the Poet: 821
• Hiding the Man: 834
• Genealogical Chart: 844
• Was Wordsworth the Name Not to Be Mentioned?: 847
• Abbreviations: 853
• Notes: 855
• Bibliography: 927
• Index: 935

About the author

Kenneth R. Johnston chair of the English department at Indiana University, lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Hidden Wordsworth: Poet, Lover, Rebel, Spy
• Authors: Kenneth R. Johnston, Kenneth R.. Johnston
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998
• ISBN: 0393046230, 9780393046236
• Length: 965 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Literary; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh