Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Literary Criticism Gothic & Romance

Inquiring Spirit

A New Presentation of Coleridge from His Published and Unpublished Prose Writings (Revised Edition)

edited by Kathleen Coburn

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Dec 1979
Category
Gothic & Romance, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442654853
    Publish Date
    Dec 1979
    List Price
    $53.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802063618
    Publish Date
    Dec 1979
    List Price
    $63.00

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

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.

About the author

Kathleen Coburn (1905-1991) was a professor emeritus of English at the University of Toronto, General Editor of the Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and editor of the Notebooks. She is the author of numerous books, including In Pursuit of Coleridge and Experience into Thought: Perspectives in the Coleridge Notebooks.

Kathleen Coburn's profile page