Writing to his publisher in 1813, Shelley expressed the hope that two of his major works "should form one volume"; nearly two centuries later, the second volume of the Johns Hopkins edition of The Complete Poetry fulfills that wish for the first time. This volume collects two important pieces: Queen Mab and The Esdaile Notebook. Privately issued in 1813, Queen Mab was perhaps Shelley's most intellectually ambitious work, articulating his views of science, politics, history, religion, society, and individual human relations. Subtitled A Philosophical Poem: With Notes, it became his most influential-and pirated-poem during much of the nineteenth century, a favorite among reformers and radicals. The Esdaile Notebook, a cycle of fifty-eight early poems, exhibits an astonishing range of verse forms. Unpublished until 1964, this sequence is vital in understanding how the poet mastered his craft. As in the acclaimed first volume, these works have been critically edited by Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat. The poems are presented as Shelley intended, with textual variants included in footnotes. Following the poems are extensive discussions of the circumstances of their composition and the influences they reflect; their publication or circulation by other means; their reception at the time of publication and in the decades since; their re-publication, both authorized and unauthorized; and their place in Shelley's intellectual and aesthetic development.

About the Author
Donald H. Reiman is an Adjunct Professor of English at the University of Delaware. Neil Fraistat is a Professor of English at the University of Maryland.

Reviews
A scholarly delight. Romanticism on the Net 2006 Once it is completed, this will be the definitive critical edition of the complete poetry of P.B. Shelley that the scholarly community has been awaiting for such a long time. We can already say: it will have been worth the wait. -- Christoph Bode Zeitschrift fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik (ZAA) 2008


Awards
Commended for Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9780801878749
Author Percy Bysshe Shelley
Format Hardback
Page Count 920
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 1383g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 54mm