Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Biography

ISBN: 0801888611

Author: Bieri, James

Condition: Used

This major biography of Shelley, Englands most radical and controversial Romantic poet, is the first to appear in thirty years. Informed by the authors extensive research, psychological insight, and recent scholarship on Shelley and his circle, the biography stresses the intimate relationship between the poets writing and his complex personality.James Bieri draws upon his dual background as a Shelley scholar and a psychologist to create a compelling narrative of Shelleys multifaceted life. Shelleys personality transcends any entreaty either to see it plain or to be labeled with a clinical diagnosis. Remarkably resilient, he was continually creative despite intervals of depression and periodic, hallucinatory panic attacks. Fascinated by the human psyche, he incorporated into his poetry his own self-analysis, including a remarkably sophisticated theory of love that provided the title to his most powerful erotic poem, Epipsychidion.Bieri also probes Shelley's numerous emotional, romantic, and familial entanglements. Based on the authors twenty years of research, the book includes new information on the discovery of Shelleys older illegitimate half-brother; important letters of his father and grandfather; his mothers early life, her letters about young Shelley, and her major influence upon Shelley; the first published portrait of Sophia Stacey, who beguiled Shelley in Florence; and further evidence on Shelleys secretly adopted Neapolitan infant.This biography offers a sympathetic and nuanced view of Shelleys tumultuous life, personality, and poetry.