The Biographia Literaria has long been recognised as one of the central prose texts of the Romantic period, both for its value as a piece of elevated prose writing and for the insights into poetry, criticism and the faculties of the mind that it offers. It seeks to reunify philosophical thought and aesthetic feeling in the belief that genuine knowledge emerges from only such a synthesis. Dr Wheeler's analysis proceeds from a number of points of view. The gradual growth of the Biographia Literaria is illuminated by notebooks and letters that show Coleridge wrestling with the work over a period of fifteen years. The aesthetic and metaphysical thought informing the Biographia is also discussed in order to elucidate the methods and purposes of the work, in which Coleridge's use of metaphor and irony constitutes both the structure and the point of engagement with the reader.

This anthology, part of a three-volume series devoted to German aesthetic and literary criticism collects extracts from the leading Romantic critics in Germany: Friedrich and August Schlegel, Ludwig Tieck, Jean Pual Richter, Freidrich von Hardenberg and Lark Solger. There are also excerpts from the writings of Goethe. The volume provides an overview of the immensely rich literary criticism of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century in Germany, which has been of seminal influence on the history of European literary criticism. The extracts bear witness to the enormous impact which Shakespeare had upon German intellectual life during this period, for it was his work which served to liberate artists and theorists alike from the norms and values of neo-classicism. Dr Wheeler has written a substantial introduction to the collection, explaining some of the more complex ideas contained therein and placing the authors in a wider intellectual context. The volume will be an especially useful textbook for students of Romantic literature, modern literary theory and the history of literary criticism, whether they be in departments of English, German or comparative literature.