Shelley has long been viewed as a dreamer isolated from reality, a "beautiful and ineffectual angel," in Arnold's words. In contrast, Stuart Sperry's book emphasizes the life forces originating in the poet's childhood that impelled and shaped his career, and reasserts Shelley's relevance to the social and cultural dilemmas of contemporary life.

Concentrating on the major narrative and dramatic poems and the patterns of development they reveal, Sperry reintegrates Shelley's poetry with his life by showing how, following the traumatic events of his early years, the poet sought to preserve and extend those life impulses by creating a network of personal relationships that provided the inspiration and model for his poems. As the circumstances of his life and his relationships to others changed and as his thought evolved, he was led to reshape his major poems. Three chapters at the center of the book, devoted to Shelley's visionary masterpiece Prometheus Unbound, provide the finest introduction so far to its conceptions and intent as well as a powerful vindication of the poet's enduring idealism. In defining Shelley's true originality, Sperry defends the poet against his harshest critics by suggesting that his vision of human potential may represent a vital resource against the competitive drives and self-destructive compulsions of our own day.

Sperry's approach to the poetry through the formative events of Shelley's early life provides an excellent biographical introduction. His reinterpretation of the major works and the career will appeal to first-time readers as well as to mature students of Shelley.

Reviews
To trace the life force of his poetry and its transformation and efflorescence in the course of his development, Sperry has taken Shelley's eight major poetic works-Queen Mab, Alastor, The Revolt of Islam, Prometheus Unbound Acts I-IV, The Cenci, The Witch of Atlas, Epipsychidion, and The Triumph of Love-and examined them chronologically within the context of the poet's life. Supported by impeccable scholarship, Sperry's incisive analyses illuminate for modern readers not only Shelley the poet but Shelley the man. -- Sharon Wong * Library Journal *
One of the finest books on Shelley to appear in recent years. Its special strength lies in its elucidation of Shelley's extreme idealism. Sperry finds in the major poetry life-values that are not only defensible but even prophetic for both individuals and societies. -- Donald H. Reiman



Book Information
ISBN 9780674806252
Author Stuart M. Sperry
Format Hardback
Page Count 231
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press
Weight(grams) 544g