Book review: Poetic Lives: Coleridge by Daniel Hahn
I’m a member of LibraryThing Early Reviewers and have been lucky enough to get my bookwormey and bibliophileish hands on two books so far. I thought I’d post my reviews here, too. This one is pretty short and to the point, owing to the rush of classes.
Poetic Lives: Coleridge by Daniel Hahn
I found this book to provide a good general overview of Coleridge’s life. It does not delve deeply into the influences in his life; rather, it tells the reader what events he was undergoing, and through this provides a context for his poetry.
It’s a short read, the writing isn’t anything extraordinary (as Luxx said, it is terse and distant), but I feel that it does it’s job well. It’s a good introduction to the poet, and will give reader a bit of insight into what he was doing when he wrote some of his works. I like the fact that the poetry is included in the volume (even if some of it is abridged), because it makes for a quick reference.
Definitely not a book for an advanced scholar of Coleridge or for someone looking for his artistic motivations, but good as a sketch of his life for someone not familiar with it. The inclusion of a page at the end with suggested further readings is a thoughtful detail.
Poetic Lives: Coleridge on LibraryThing
I react very badly when I see the word “abridged”! But I suppose if the goal is to have a quick reference, there’s nothing wrong with it, just as there’s nothing wrong with cutting down quotations as necessary.
Comment by CRM — 24.01.2010 @ 12:57
I do, too. But this wasn’t a book of poetry, this was a biography. From that perspective, saying “He shows his love for this woman in these poems” and including a few stanzas is better than not. (Plus, to be fair, some of his poems were quite long.)
They quite redeemed themselves by including the whole of “The Ancient Mariner” at the end as a concluding piece. :3
Comment by Lensblot — 24.01.2010 @ 13:00