The Prelude: A Parallel Text (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by William Wordsworth (Author), Jonathan Wordsworth (Editor) "Was it for this..." (more)
Key Phrases: insinuated scoff, superadded soul, sweet birthplace, Vale Of Nightshade, One Christmas-time (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
First published in July 1850, shortly after Wordsworth's death, The Prelude was the culmination of over fifty years of creative work. The great Romantic poem of human consciousness, it takes as its theme the growth of a poet's mind': leading the reader back to Wordsworth's formative moments of childhood and youth, and detailing his experiences as a radical undergraduate in France at the time of the Revolution. Initially inspired by Coleridge's exhortation that Wordsworth write a work upon the French Revolution, The Prelude has ultimately become one of the finest examples of poetic autobiography ever written; a fascinating examination of the self that also presents a comprehensive view of the poet's own creative vision.

About the Author
William Wordsworth was born in the Lake District in 1770 and died there eighty years later in 1850. He had three brothers and a sister, Dorothy, to whom he was extremely close. As an undergraduate at Cambridge, Wordsworth travelled widely and wrote poetry. He spent his twenties as a wanderer in France, Wales, London, the Lakes, Dorset and Germany. In France he fathered a child who he did not meet until she was nine, due to the war. In 1795 he was reunited with Dorothy and met Coleridge, who was to be a particular influence on his poetry. He became Poet Laureate in 1843. Jonathan Wordsworth is descended from William's younger brother Christopher, is Chairman of the Wordsworth Trust and a Lecturer in Romantic Studies at Oxford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140433694
• ISBN-13: 978-0140433692
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #218,042 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It was for this...., May 1, 2006

By	Christopher J. Sharpe "Chris Sharpe" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"A good deal of [Wordsworth's poetry], perhaps most of it, is very dull, like a long walk on a grey day. But just as somewhere on that walk there might be a sudden and superb flash of beauty, so in Wordsworth's poetry there are short passages, perhaps only a line or so, that are miraculous. An apparently simple unadorned phrase will suddenly blaze in the reader's imagination. These moments of his, once experienced, are never forgotten, and we never entirely lose our response to them." - J. B. Priestley. Literature and Western Man (Collins, 1960).

The Prelude contains many of these unforgettable moments - certainly more than "short passages". Besides being a wonderful poem, the work gives the reader a unique insight into the life of the poet through his own words. The four versions give us a chance to appreciate how the poet grows and develops and how his views change over time. In many cases, changes to the 1805 manuscript appearing in the final 1850 publication do not seem to be improvements at all, but attempts to cover up previous indiscretions or to subdue outbursts of passion. The sentiment of the newer portions is often far from that of the earlier drafts. The two much shorter initial drafts, "Was It for This" and the Two-part Prelude of 1799, are very different to the later books and show a superb command of language. Not surprisingly, Wordsworth's relationship with nature is a major theme throughout the poem. The direct effect of growing up in the countryside is perhaps revealed more plainly than in his other poems and a quasi-religious philosophy is evident.

This Penguin version seems to me to offer as much as one could want for a non-academic reader. The 120-odd pages of notes are quite sufficient to understand the poem thoroughly.

This book will appeal to anyone who enjoys romantic poetry, nature or autobiography. A book to be savoured, not rushed. Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful for Study of a Great Epic, March 23, 2009

By	Poetry reader (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

Wordsworth is a great poet, one of the greatest. The Prelude is also one of the greatest English epics. This edition, edited by Jonathan Wordsworth--Wordsworth's own progeny, offers readers a chance not only to read the poem in its entirety but also to compare different versions (the posthumously published 1850 version has 14 "books"), which is helpful in understanding the development of the poem and of Wordsworth.

In The Prelude, Wordsworth is his own epic hero, and the traditional epic journey is more an interior journey, but the autobiographical text helps us to see Wordsworth as someone who was meant to be a poet, indeed as someone who was created for that purpose. His message of humanity's bond with nature, through which we have access to the divine, continues to be relevant to today's readers, perhaps even more relevant as we become more mechanized and urbanized, moving further and further away from nature, a move Wordsworth anticipates with regret. Wordsworth as a poet and as a man tends to grow on readers willing to take the time to get to know him. His genius is surpassed perhaps only by Shakespeare, and his wisdom and vision help make readers better for the journey into his mind and heart.

0 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an all-star book, May 14, 2001

By	Michael W. Nissman (Christiansted, VI Virgin Islands (U.S.)) - See all my reviews

This book is a roller-coater of litereral passages that keep you on the edge of your chair. It's a real page turner.