Summary: Examines the interlinked lives of English Romantic poets from an alternate perspective that analyzes their youth, drive for companionship, individuality and radical political beliefs, in a study that includes coverage of such figures as Lord Byron, John Keats and Mary Shelley. A first book. - (Baker & Taylor)
The lives of the second generation of English Romantic writers—Leigh Hunt, Percy and Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Keats—are the stuff of melodramatic romance and legend: antiestablishment rebels; successions of wives, mistresses, and lovers; the struggle for recognition; exile; and early death. Following a broadly chronological movement, this debut by Hay shifts back and forth among the circles of friends and families of these writers, from the imprisonment of Hunt to the death of Shelley and its aftermath. While Hay breaks no new ground, Young Romantics is a vigorously written, well-informed, and popularizing page-turner. VERDICT The chief limitation of the book—a problem that hampers a number of recent literary biographies—is that it focuses on the human dimensions of the poets rather than the greatness of their poetry. It is accessible, however, and highly recommended for the general reader interested in the lives behind the poems but less so for the specialist.—T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah
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