William Wordsworth (Twayne's English Authors Series) [Hardcover]

Russell Noyes (Author), John O. Hayden (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Twayne Pub; Upd Sub edition (March 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080577002X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805770025
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,263,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3.0 out of 5 stars A General Introduction...Perhaps A Little Too General, December 15, 2004

By 

Daniel R. Sanderman (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: William Wordsworth (Twayne's English Authors Series) (Hardcover)

Noyes's book is a comprehensive take on William Wordsworth, examining the entire scope of his poetry. The book functions as a short biography of Wordsworth's career, spiced throughout with poems and interpretations. Noyes makes certain to include every poem that has "endured the sifting of time" (xi), in chronological order, and he provides a context for each in order to show Wordsworth's development as a poet over time.

At around 150 pages, Noyes's book makes for a nice introduction to Wordsworth's life and works, as well as providing a general context for anyone interested in a particular period of his career. As one might expect, Noyes's book definitely comes from a slant in presenting Wordsworth persistently in a positive light. Nowhere is this bias more apparent than Noyes's conclusion that Wordsworth "was the most truly original genius of his age," whose style is "unsurpassed in its naked idiomatic force and its quiet unadorned beauty of word and phrase" (139, 142). For Noyes, no decision made by Wordsworth lacks merit and every one of his actions and poetic decisions must be explained with a principle of charity that makes even a fan of Wordsworth a bit leery. As the editor notes, Noyes's biography operates at a fairly high level of generalization, making it more suitable to background reading than to deep textual analysis. That being said, however, Noyes's work provides a helpful, global perspective on what might be considered the "standard" views concerning most aspects of Wordsworth's works-perhaps providing the springboard for research or, if one's feelings towards Wordsworth's work are less favorable than Noyes's own, even argument.