‘A TOUCHSTONE OF ROMANTIC CRITICISM’
COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor.
Biographia Literaria; or biographical Sketches of my literary Life and Opinions … Vol I[-II].
London: Rest Fenner … 1817.
Two vols., 8vo., wanting the half titles, but with the terminal advertisements in volume II; title page in volume I and gatherings HH-II in volume II foxed, the last three gatherings in volume I working loose, else a good copy in early half sheep and marbled boards, joints cracked and spines torn, edges rubbed.
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Biographia Literaria; or biographical Sketches of my literary Life and Opinions … Vol I[-II].
First edition. Coleridge’s estimates of contemporary German poets and philosophers are justly celebrated, and the long autobiographical passages and critical analyses of Wordsworth and of Lyrical Ballads are of primary interest. ‘Though maddeningly unsystematic in structure, the book is a touchstone of Romantic criticism’ (OHEL).
Wise, Coleridge, 40; Tinker 696.
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