Private Lives of the Ancient Mariner

Coleridge and his Children
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7188-9300-2
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 635 g

Reihe: Lutterworth Press

A fascinating new study of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, illuminating the poet's deeply troubled personality and relationship with his family.

A fascinating new study of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'Private Lives of the Ancient Mariner' illuminates the poet's deeply troubled personality and stormy personal life through a highly original study of his relationships. In her last published work the celebrated Coleridgean, Molly Lefebure, provides profound psychological insights into Coleridge through a meticulous study of his domestic life, drawing upon a vast and unique body of knowledge gained from a lifetime's study of the poet, and making skilful use of the letters, poems and biographies of the man himself and his family and friends.

The author traces the roots of Coleridge's unarguably dysfunctional personality from his earliest childhood; his position as his mother's favoured child, the loss of this status with the death of his father, and removal to the 'Bluecoat' school in London. Coleridge's narcissistic depression, flamboyance, and cold-hearted, often cruel, rejection of his family and of loving attachments in general are examined in close detail. The author also explores Coleridge's careers in journalism and politics as well as poetry, in his early, heady 'jacobin' days, and later at the heart of the British wartime establishment at Malta. In both of these arenas Coleridge exerted his talents to brilliant effect, although they have often been overlooked in appraisals of his works. His virtual abandonment of his children and tragic disintegration under the influence of opium are included in the broad sweep of the book which also encompasses an examination of the lives of Coleridge's children, upon whom the manipulations of the father left their destructive mark.

Molly Lefebure unravels the enigma that is Coleridge with consummate skill in a book which will bring huge enjoyment to any reader with an interest in the poet's life and times.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lefebure, Molly

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue - The Children of Genius Lose Their Fountain of Light
I Funeral at Highgate

II A time to lament

III The chilled heart

Part One - Resurrection
IV Beware, Beware

V Offensive disclosures

VI Better not look this way

First Landing Place - From Under the Tablecloth

Part Two - Sam
VII Little Sam

VIII The Torrents of Spring

IX Jesus man, including In pursuit of Tippoo Sahib, Francis Coleridge

X Jesus man continued

XI The pantisocrats

XII A chilled heart and a democratic marriage

Part Three - Taper in a Cottage Window
XIII Sermons and sedition and a father's kiss

XIV A seraph in clouts

XV The cradle

Second Landing Place - Crossroads

Part Four - A Mystic Peregrination

XVI A mystic peregrination - (I): Father as alchemical philosopher

XVII A mystic peregrination - (II): Beyond the grasp of reason

XVIII A mystic peregrination - (III) Father as mariner: The way ahead

Part Five - Trailing Clouds of Glory
XIX In which Papa goes to Germany and Berkeley goes to Heaven

XX The Vale of Elysium

XXI A Faery Voyager and a fine representative baby

XXII Darkness at noon

XXIII Sensibility and sense

Part Six - Samuel Taylor Coleridge V Napoleon Bonaparte
XXIV In pursuit of Tipoo Sahib - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

XXV Our man in Malta

XXVI Our man in Malta (Contd)

XXVII Confrontations

Part Seven - Confrontations
XXVIII And further confrontations

XXIX Ejuxria (Pg 306 - 316)

XXX News from the Aunt Hill concluding with some intimations

XXXI A case of unatural cruelty

XXXII Further news from the Aunt Hill

Part Eight - Locked Out Children
XXXIII A month at Brighton! Portrait of an excluded daughter

XXXIV A sunny stroll in Ambleside - Portrait of locked out sons

Part Nine - Shipwreck of the Faery Voyager
XXXV Shipwreck of the Faery Voyager