Appreciations of Poetry Book

Accessible and knowledgeable, this brief biography is well suited to undergraduates or general readers. It makes sensible connections between the incidents of STC's life and his poetry without falling prey to an impulse to draw one-to-one correspondence between them. The book clearly illustrates both the astonishing breadth of Coleridge's intellect and talent, and the unhappiness which plagued him throughout adulthood, in the form of tormented relations with friends and family, addiction, and failure to achieve (within his lifetime) the desired measure of fame and reputation.