Percy Bysshe Shelley

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction: ‘Internal Powers’ and ‘External Influences’

   • Michael O’Neill

   Pages 1-9

3. 1810–1816: ‘Breathing Hatred to Government & Religion’

   • Michael O’Neill

   Pages 10-35

4. 1816–1818: ‘Truth’s Deathless Voice’

   • Michael O’Neill

   Pages 36-61

5. 1818–1819: ‘Beyond the Present & Tangible Object’

   • Michael O’Neill

   Pages 62-92

6. 1819–1820: ‘The Torrent of My Indignation’

   • Michael O’Neill

   Pages 93-124

7. 1820–1822: ‘Where the Eternal are’

   • Michael O’Neill

   Pages 125-157

8. Back Matter

   Pages 158-176

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In 'Percy Bysshe Shelly: A Literary Life' , Michael O'Neill gives a knowledgeable and balanced account of Shelley's literary career from his earliest published work to his last unfinished masterpiece, The Triumph of Life . The book draws on recent research about the poet and his age, but its sense of the ways in which texts and contexts interact is sharply independent. Issues discussed include Shelley's social background, his radical politics and his complex response to Enlightenment rationalism. O'Neill stresses Shelley's often disappointed search for an audience, connecting it with the growing sophistication of his poetry and poetics. For Shelley, a poet was the 'combined product' of 'internal powers' and 'external influences' (Preface to Prometheus Unbound ); this book explores how such a combination manifests itself in his own writings.

• poet
• poetics
• poetry

• University of Durham, UK

  Michael O’Neill

MICHAEL O'NEILL lectures in English at the University of Durham. He is the author of The Human Mind's Imaginings: Conflict and Archievement in Shelley's Poetry and The Stripped Bed (forthcoming), a collection of poems. He is an editor of Poetry Durham.

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