Bøker av Kathleen Coburn

Sarah Hutchinson has never been much more than a name, though a name connected with some of the greatest in English literature. Now her letters, printed for the first time, to members of her family and to friends demonstrate how worthwhile it is to know her for herself as well.

When this work was first prepared for publication in 1949 the Notebooks and Collected Letters were still in manuscript, and many of the printed works, if not unavailable, were scarce. The continuing publication of Coleridge's works has not lessened the demand for a general introduction to Coleridge's mind and its workings. Selections from works including The Friend, Essays on His Own Times, Aids to Reflection, the Statesman's Manual, Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, and Table Talk, and from other lesser known works are arranged by topic. The subjects – psychology, education, language, logic and philosophy, literary criticism, the arts, science, society, religion and his contemporaries – reflect the astonishing range of Coleridge's intellectual interests. The revised edition of this anthology is still the best introduction to the prose works of an inquiring spirit.There is a fine introductory essay, and each section has an introduction of its own. The annotation is apt, and the index efficient. The whole book, in short, has been ordered with the distinction which is characteristic of Professor Coburn.

This book examines Coleridge's experiences, moods, thoughts, and reactions as a whole and their relation to his poems and to his prose works, and also to look at many of his own statements made mainly in the privacy of his notebooks about his aims and purposes.