Breaking Away: Coleridge in Scotland (Hardcover)

~ Professor Carol Kyros Walker (Author), (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

When Samuel Taylor Coleridge set out on a tour of Scotland with his friends William and Dorothy Wordsworth in the summer of 1803, his wits were as sharp as ever but his health, professional career, marriage, and friendship with William and his sister Dorothy were in a deteriorating state. On the fifteenth day of their travels, the Wordsworths and Coleridge parted ways, ostensibly so that Coleridge could return home. Instead he pursued his own Scottish tour, finding pleasure in his solitude, speed, and endurance.

This book draws on Coleridge's letters and notebooks to look at his travels with the Wordsworths from his own point of view and to record and photograph the journey he experienced after he parted from them. Carol Kyros Walker, editor of Dorothy Wordsworth's own Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, now retraces Coleridge's very different Scottish tour and recounts his adventures there. In a remarkable photographic and literary essay, she argues that Coleridge's speed (263 miles in eight days), energy, reflections, notes, and letters all betray a man of great talent who was breaking away -- from the Wordsworths, from his wife, from his life in the Lake District, and from a dry phase in his writing career.

About the Author

Carol Kyros Walker is an artist in residence at the Art Institute of Chicago. She is also the author of Walking North with Keats and editor of Dorothy Wordsworth's Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, both published by Yale University Press.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300096410
• ISBN-13: 978-0300096415
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,847,526 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Incredibly Beautiful Book, December 11, 2005

By	T. Books "Life of the Mind" (Alta Loma, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The pictures in this book of Scotland's lakes, fields and mountains are breathtaking. Carol Walker follows Coleridge's 263 mile walking tour from over 200 years ago. Mostly color photos record all the sights along the way, and what sights they are. The text consists of a short but thorough history of the tour, and at the end pages from Coleridge's travel journal and letters written during his journey. There are very useful maps that pinpoint each place Coleridge past along the way. Books like this usually disappoint me because of the paucity of pictures. This book is a work of art with equal laurels earned by the author, the photographer and the book designer. It is one of those books you just love to hold and turn the pages. It is so obvious that everyone concerned with this project took great pride in their work. I have a personal library of 10,000 volumes. This is the single most beautiful book I own.

5.0 out of 5 stars Breaking Away, August 28, 2006

By	Stephen Balbach (Ashton, MD United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a sequel to Walker's Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland (1997). It covers what happened to Coleridge after he separated from the Wordsworth's on the third week.

Everything about these two books is a true pleasure and obvious labor of love. Not only is Carol Walker a skilled photographer, literary historian and writer, but a hiker and thorough researcher. The books are of real and lasting scholarly merit, they are very generous in what is included.

Most of the book is photos but the first 25 pages is a literary history of Coleridge and Wordsworth, and their relationship and falling out, and how that played into their trip to Scotland. It is entirely human and understandable and gets to the core of what is friendship.