The Wordsworths and Coleridge, 1797-1801

Richard Matlak uses psychobiography to look at the writings of William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Dorothy Wordsworth. He examines the intimate relationship between the three writers for clues to their poems, providing a major reinterpretation of their canonical works based on psychological and intertextual contexts. The themes of romance, incest, guilt, and familial breakdown and reunion are especially scrutinized in the work and lives of these prominent figures. In particular, he gives long overdue credit to Dorothy Wordsworth for her profound influence on her brother's major verse, and the effect their relationship had on the work of Coleridge, causing us to view all creative relationships in a new light.