Kirjahaku

Robespierre's Reign of Terror spawned an evil little twin in William Pitt the Younger's Reign of Alarm, 1792-1798. Terror begat Alarm. Many lives and careers were ruined in Britain as a result of the alarmist regime Pitt set up to suppress domestic dissent while waging his disastrous wars against republican France. Liberal young writers and intellectuals whose enthusiasm for the American and French revolutions raised hopes for Parliamentary reform at home saw their prospects blasted. Over a hundred trials for treason or sedition (more than ever before or since in British history) were staged against 'the usual suspects' - that is, political activists. But other, informal, vigilante means were used against the 'unusual suspects' of this book: jobs lost, contracts abrogated, engagements broken off, fellowships terminated, inheritances denied, and so on and on. As in the McCarthy era in 1950s America, blacklisting and rumor-mongering did as much damage as legal repression. Dozens of 'almost famous' writers saw their promising careers nipped in the bud: people like Helen Maria Williams, James Montgomery, William Frend, Gilbert Wakefield, John Thelwall, Joseph Priestley, Dr. Thomas Beddoes, Francis Wrangham and many others. Unusual Suspects tells the stories of some representative figures from this largely 'lost' generation, restoring their voices to nationalistic historical accounts that have drowned them in triumphal celebrations of the rise of English Romanticism and England's ultimate victory over Napoleon. Their stories are compared with similar experiences of the first Romantic generation: Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, Lamb, Burns, and Blake. Wordsworth famously said of this decade, 'bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven!' These young people did not find it so-and neither, when we look more closely, did Wordsworth.

In this fascinating account, Kenneth R. Johnston portrays a Wordsworth different in crucial ways from the one the poet intended us to know. Taking advantage of unprecedented access to archives, family papers, and letters, he reveals the poet's complex relationship with his sister Dorothy; the full story of the affair with his French mistress, Annette Vallon; and his surprisingly close connections to both radical reformers and the political establishment of his day, including members of the newly formed British Secret Service in England and Germany. The Hidden Wordsworth also explores the poet's intense and often destructive relations with a cluster of young writers, leading up to his friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This brilliantly insightful biography breaks through the carefully crafted but frequently misleading accounts of his youth Wordsworth created in his conservative later years. The Hidden Wordsworth reveals the radical young poet whose powerful intellect revolutionized English poetry. Winner of the 1998 Jean Baracelli Prize from the American Conference on Romanticism; shortlisted for the James Tait Black biography prize (UK); a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. "Full of fresh information, fresh insights, and fresh intelligent critical readings of the poetry."—Stephen M. Parrish, editor, The Cornell Wordsworth