Watch the Amazon Original series Cross now on Prime Video. Yours with Prime.
Buy new:
-8% $76.49
FREE delivery January 10 - 28
Ships from: BOOKS etc. _
Sold by: BOOKS etc. _
$76.49 with 8 percent savings
List Price: $83.00
FREE delivery January 10 - 28. Details
Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or text message.
Only 2 left in stock - order soon.
$$76.49 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$76.49
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
BOOKS etc. _
BOOKS etc. _
Ships from
BOOKS etc. _
Returns
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
For the 2024 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2024 can be returned until January 31, 2025.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$28.65
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Book is in standard used condition. The binding is tight, but the cover and edges may have significant wear. Supplemental materials may not be valid. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Ships fast from Amazon! EX-Library. Book is in standard used condition. The binding is tight, but the cover and edges may have significant wear. Supplemental materials may not be valid. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Ships fast from Amazon! EX-Library. See less
FREE delivery Sunday, December 29 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Saturday, December 28. Order within 9 hrs 17 mins
Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or text message.
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$76.49 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$76.49
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Biographia Literaria: The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographical Sketches of my Literary Life & Opinions Paperback – February 1, 1985

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 10 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$76.49","priceAmount":76.49,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"76","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"49","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"mNDJ0AwXJT2TxtzUGFgeO9taVQcKBsmk023VDU7t2PyYFcUXbmIaGVGrdx52LfQ9DsCUI%2FXIT%2FgbFSEM6kZr27ybhxI5fNfcDcQTvtu5Lklt3kTChCCWJL8nOUTNCEXdyJ1BQPIU8TQGXlwO8XExn7EmbnilDYUeIGjKjsAmRjPD5QcC8tLc2AC3R95CjiqX","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$28.65","priceAmount":28.65,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"28","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"65","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"mNDJ0AwXJT2TxtzUGFgeO9taVQcKBsmk9wj0FOUhl6M4PnjvjKzx3stj%2FsiSgoDIGNBUGGaN5J8Be9wpe7Sg4sprXm9GNQEbF6gUCoy8pASq1ZwBenxjs4%2BoSkSPVZJad%2FzAVWHbvs2MbE1RKBXb1B6svXk9qnC%2BKnFicV9joDO2F9sRHbbluw%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Biographia Literaria has emerged over the last century as a supreme work of literary criticism and one of the classics of English literature. Into this volume poured 20 years of speculation about the criticism and uses of poetry and about the psychology of art. Following the text of the 1817 edition, the editors offer the first completely annotated edition of the highly allusive work.

Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    866 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Princeton University Press
  4. Publication date
    February 1, 1985
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1.5 x 8.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0691018618
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0691018614
  8. See all details
Next slide of product details
The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Honorable Mention for the 2001 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Multivolume Reference: Humanities, Association of American Publishers"

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; Reprint edition (February 1, 1985)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 866 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691018618
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691018614
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.5 x 8.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
10 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top reviews from the United States

  • Joseph Kolupke
    5.0 out of 5 stars At Last: A Reader's Biographia Literaria
    Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2007
    Anyone interested in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's work could not receive better advice than to buy the Princeton University Press paperback edition of Biographia Literaria (1817), the closest thing that this most brilliant but also most erratic of all the English romantic poets produced by way of a summa of his life and critical theories. If you've tried it in a cheap edition (e.g., the Modern Library) and set it aside scratching your head over the constant flow of obscure allusions, untranslated quotations in Latin, Greek, and, especially, German, and hundreds of references to other writers, now is the time to give it another shot. The editors, James Engell and Walter Jackson Bate, have meticulously glossed every one of these obscurities in footnotes (not endnotes)that are a model of clarity and concision. The volume has everything you need to appreciate this great work: a thorough and highly readable editors' introduction, a chronology of Coleridge's life, appendices on related correspondence and on passages Coleridge appropriated from the German philosophers, and a complete index. This edition is not, by ordinary standards, new: as volume 7 of Princeton's Collected Works of STC, it's been around as a two-volume hardcover since 1983 and a single volume paperback since 1984. But considering how long it took to produce a usable version for the ordinary reader, it might as well have come out yesterday.
    20 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • D. P. Birkett
    4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome erudition
    Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2003
    Verified Purchase
    I am almost as much in awe of the erudition of the editors (James Engell and W Jackson Bates of the Bolingen edition) as that of Coleridge himself. I think it is often easier to parade one's own wide reading than to recognize someone elses's references. These editors track down the most obscure of Greek, German and Latin quotations and it's an education to read their notes.
    There are really three themes in the book. One part is philosophy, one is literary criticism, and one is straight autobiography. These are dispersed throughout.
    As regards the philosophy I am probably what he would have called "ignorant of his understanding." Coleridge shows a remarkable knowledge of German philosophy, read in the original language. As far as I know his philosophical ideas have not been highly regarded by pure philosophers.
    The literary criticism is the most powerful and original part although the texts he uses will be unfamiliar and even anaccessible to most modern readers.
    The fragments of autobiography such as chapter 10 and the first of the Satyrayane's Letters are the most readable.
    While this is an unboubted work of genius I have denied it the fifth star because of a certain lack of redability. It is not, for the modern reader, a page-turning work of entertainment. It contains many gems, and much wit, but is one of those we take up today for instruction rather than diversion.
    26 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Extollager
    5.0 out of 5 stars From a "universal mind"
    Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2002
    Bede Griffiths, in his book The Golden String, referred to STC as "one of the most universal minds in English literature."
    I don't know of anything comparable to Biographia Literaria. At times it's the narrative of a great poet's life. He may veer off into literary criticism or even parody (see the, to me, hilarious section in which he gives "The House that Jack Built" in the rhetorical manner of a recent poet). He powerfully attacks the positivism of his age (and ours). He evokes the wonder of being human.
    This scholarly edition is the one to get, if you're going to put in the time to read this rich classic at all.
    16 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • turntwo463
    3.0 out of 5 stars twenty pages at the center are completely detached
    Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I'm not one to complain but I'm just a little annoyed that this wasn't made known. I need this book pretty soon so I won't risk waiting for an exchange. Hopefully I won't lose the pages.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Martin Asiner
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Function of the Poet: The Duty of the Man
    Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2009
    STC's original purpose for BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA was to account for the major influences in his development of both his philosophy and literary technique. But as he progressed, his real goal was to discuss at mind-numbing length intellectual problems and issues and to provide the world a pulpit for his literary criticism with comments on specific works. His book is truly a long conversation ranging over poetry, drama, philosophy, and psychology. He opens the book by praising the Reverend James Bowyer, who had taught him logic and rhetoric years earlier. He notes that in his youth he developed a taste for the `pre-romantic' vogue of lyrics rather than the traditional styles of Pope and other Augustan poets. Throughout, he mentions the harsh attacks of critics who saw in him (and Wordsworth) as poetic vulgarizers. It is no surprise then that he often went on to a spirited counterattack. Early in the book, he considers a favorite series of topics: perception, sensation, and the human thought processes. He does not make it easy for the modern reader to catch his drift since he assumes that his readers have an intimate knowledge of the popular theories of psychology and philosophy of his day. He ponders, among others, Hobbes, Aristotle, Descarte and Kant. He describes his business failure with a literary journal "The Watchman" that he founded. Had his friends not bailed him out with timely loans, he might have wound up in debtor's prison. He notes that his 1798 trip to Germany provided him with invaluable first-hand knowledge of literature and politics. A return to England exposed him to the joys of journalism. Later in the text, he returns to philosophy. He was quite concerned with distinguishing between the perceiver and the perceived. He also distinguished imagination (You can always spot his unique prose style since he invariably spells "imagination" and "fancy" in upper case) into the Primary Imagination and the Secondary Imagination. The former perceives and recognizes objects while the latter enables its host to produce new thoughts: `It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate.' Coleridge invents a new word that he calls `esemplastic' to refer to this Imagination that can balance or reconcile the apparent opposites in experience. Next he writes that with reference to poetry, its immediate object is `pleasure, not truth.' Next, he discusses the function of the poet, who, via his imagination, brings unity out of diversity by reconciling `sameness, with differences; of the general, with the concrete; the idea, with the image; the individual, with the representative; the sense of novelty and freshness, with old and familiar objets; a more than usual state of emotion, with more than usual order; judgment ever awake and steady self-possession, with enthusiasm and feeling profound or vehement.' Coleridge was not bashful about criticizing his good friend Wordsworth, who valued the speech of low and rustic life as the natural language of emotion. Coleridge praised Wordsworth for the purity of his language and the freshness of his thoughts. BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA emerges as a penetrating glimpse into a man who saw a universe in a manner that not many others did, not even his literary soulmates.
    7 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • X
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very good value. Professional service
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    All exactly as described. securely packaged. Very good value. Professional service; highly recommended.
    Report