English Men of Letters: Coleridge

The biography traces Samuel Taylor Coleridge's life from a learned provincial upbringing through formative schooling and university, recounting his early poetic flowering that produced key collaborations and landmark poems and the subsequent ebb of his creative impulse. It follows later phases as journalist, lecturer, and critic, noting travels, recurring ill health, financial embarrassments, and opium dependence that affected his output. The book examines his metaphysical and theological writings and a major critical treatise, surveys his Shakespeare lectures, and tracks shifts in reputation. It closes with a measured appraisal of his intellectual achievements and the persistent gaps and difficulties that complicate a full life narrative.