Customer Reviews

Major Poems and Selected Prose

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Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was a Victorian poet loosely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He was controversial both in his character and in his work. He is most known in poetry for his mastery of euphony, rhyme, and meter.

Major elements in Swinburne's work include opposition against standard Christianity; neo-paganism (especially associated with Proserpine, Pan, and Diana); parody; and love, especially with relation to death. He is perhaps best known for his poems "The Garden of Proserpine," "Anactoria," and Atalanta in Calydon.

Everything in this book has been selected out of Swinburne's entire corpus by the editors. That means pieces these particular editors do not find necessary or important have not been included, which is always makes me nervous. I am not a Swinburne scholar, but from what I've studied to this point it seems as though these editors made worthy decisions. Furthermore, with 528 pages of text, you're still getting a good bulk of Swinburne's work.

The edition begins with a helpful but not stellar introduction. Jerome McGann uses it as much as an apologetic as an introduction to Swinburne's life and works. Also, I would have liked it if he had given explanation and background for more poems than he did. The bibliography for the introduction in the back is ideal for beginning further study of the poet.

The explanatory notes are very helpful, but certainly not comprehensive. If you want to read Swinburne and get a basic to moderate understanding of the poems with the help of notes, this book is the right level.