Reviews for In the household of Percy Bysshe Shelley

The average rating for In the household of Percy Bysshe Shelley based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-07-14 00:00:00 Theresa Cullen Hill I picked up this book since the subject intrigued me. I honestly know more about Mary Shelley than I do about her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. They are known as the Romantic Era Brit-lit power couple who were considered pioneers in their day. This is a very specific look at Percy Bysshe Shelley from multiple perspectives in poetic verse. Admittedly, if you don't know anything about Percy Bysshe Shelley or Mary Shelley, you probably shouldn't start here; this collection relies on the fact that the reader knows who the Shelleys are, like much any other academic writing. Cooperman used letters and other events in Shelley's life to reference each poem. Some of the events were the well-known highlights; his marriage to Harriet, when he runs off with Mary, his divorcing Harriet then marrying Mary, his trips to the continent, meeting with Lord Byron, Harriet's suicide, the deaths of Mary's children, his affair with Claire Claremont (who also slept with Byron), Claremont's daughter's death, Percy's death by drowning and his rapid burial afterward. Even though I have read and looked up other information on the Shelleys, I didn't know who some of the figures mentioned in the book were. So if you didn't have any prior background, this book would probably be rather confusing to readers. The poems, are in the order of events which is helpful, at least. Percy had some real issues, that much is clear, just as it was in Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein, though that other book was entirely from Mary's prospective. I mean, he was friends with Lord Byron and neither were honorable in their treatment of women. Honestly, this perspective makes it seem like Percy hates pretty much everybody at one point or another after professing to adore them at an earlier point. This trend happens with; Harriet, Mary, Claire, Mary's father (William Godwin, whom he looked up to intellectually), and Lord Byron. He was an idealist intellectually but his personal relationships with people were just- yikes. This collection of poems easily paints Shelley as an incredibly troubled young man in spite of having a gift for the written word that has transcended time (not without Mary's championing of him, it should be noted, but he's still up there in the history of English poets). I gave this collection 4 stars! It was written in the style of the Romantic period and sounded like the voices of these real-life figures believably. This won't be everyone's cup of tea, I get that, but if you like poetry or the Romantic era, especially the Shelleys, this collection should at least interest you. Trigger warning: There are some sexist attitudes that the male characters have and there are two suicides (Harriet's and Percy's, his death is considered a suicide by some of the other characters in this book but that's been debated) and deaths of children (Mary's and Claire's) in this as well.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-04-17 00:00:00 Michael Sturnick Competently written but without any real insights. If you want to read a biography in verse that is brilliant, on the other hand, try Burning Wycliffe by Thom Satterlee. In that book, the forms support the content, the lines are gorgeous and surprising, and the life is compassionately portrayed.