Shelley and his readers
Subtitle: beyond paranoid politics
By: Kim Wheatley.
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Columbia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 278
Subjects: Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822 -- Criticism and interpretation -- History.; Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Authors and readers -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Criticism -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Poetry -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
Description: In Shelley and His Readers, the first full-length critical analysis of the dialogue between Shelley's poetry and its contemporary reviewers, Kim Wheatley argues that Shelley's idealism can be recovered through the study of his poetry's reception.

Incorporating extensive research in major early-nineteenth-century British periodicals, Wheatley integrates a reception-based methodology with careful textual analysis to demonstrate that the early reception of Shelley's work registers the immediate impact of the poet's increasingly idealistic passion for reforming the world.

Shelley and His Readers offers a new approach to the question of how to recuperate Romantic idealism in the face of challenges from both deconstructive and historicist criticism. Its innovative use of reception-based analysis will make this book invaluable not only to specialists of the Romantic period but also to anyone interested in new developments in literary criticism.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-271) and index.