From Library Journal
If letter writing is a performance art, and great performances seduce, then surely readers will be seduced by the letters of John Keats. The examples included here are those selected by Hyder E. Rollins for The Letters of John Keats, 1814-1821, but Scott (English, Muhlenberg Coll.) has deleted the endless academic annotations and updated the spelling and punctuation for ease of reading. As a result, the letters glow with spontaneity; sprightly and personal to the point of intimacy, they reveal a mind and heart searching high and low for possibilities. Here, readers will see a man in step with daily existence who reasoned his way through but also exalted in life's infinite variety and challenges. Insights into Keats's poetry are to be found, too, as well as his great devotion to friends and family. Keats was not without human frailties he could be dicey, contradictory, and manipulative but his letters are irresistible. Included in this volume are letters to a cross section of people, including Keats's friends, siblings, and fianc‚e, Fanny Brawne. Scott wisely includes a few letters to and about John Keats, the most notable being those of the painter Joseph Severn, his loving caregiver, who nursed Keats until his early death in Italy. Recommended for larger public libraries. Robert L. Kelly, Fort Wayne Community Schs., IN
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
[These] letters glow with spontaneity; sprightly and personal to the point of intimacy, they reveal a mind and heart searching high and low for possibilities. Here, readers will see a man in step with daily existence who reasoned his way through but also exalted in life's infinite variety and challenges. Insights into Keats's poetry are to be found, too, as well as his great devotion to friends and family. Keats was not without human frailties--he could be dicey, contradictory, and manipulative--but his letters are irresistible...Recommended.
--Robert L. Kelly (
Library Journal 20020901)
This new book, which offers the traditional body of Keats's letters as well as a handful of new additions, reminds us of the extraordinary human being who was John Keats. Here he is--falling in love, struggling with questions of literature and philosophy, generously helping others at every chance, bravely facing a terminal disease...Harvard University Press has produced a definitive volume in this new edition about the poet "whose name was writ on water."
--John A. Murray (
Bloomsbury Review 20020922)
Editor Scott has selected the most important correspondence from the standard two-volume
Selected Letters of John Keats published in 1958, for this new version, and added four additional items (three previously unpublished). The informative editorial material is expertly presented. (
Dallas Morning News 20030101)
Devotees of Keats's poetry will appreciate Scott's revision. Interesting to read, Keats's letters throw a great deal of light on his life and poetry, revealing the insecurities, doubts, fears, enthusiasms, and creativity of one of England's greatest poets.
--G. A. Cevasco (
Choice 20051201)
Keats's letters have long been regarded as masterpieces, both for the light they shed on the poetry, and for the vivid picture they provide of the poet. This excellent selection is based on Hyder Rollins's definitive 1958 edition, and includes several letters which have been found only recently. The context of the correspondence is established by the inclusion of some letters addressed to Keats. (
London Review of Books )
