The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 2
Jeaffreson, John Cordy, 1831-1901Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.2- Word count
- 1.2M words
- Chapters
- 118
Tags
English Originals Literary Figures Fate and FortuneLiterary GiantsPoet BiographyComplex HumanityRomanticismAcademic StudyTradition RevaluedSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life. Vol. 2 (of 2) by JeaffresonAuthor: Jeaffreson, John Cordy, 1831-1901,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 31, 2012Editor's review
This is the second volume of John Cordy Jeaffreson's biography of Shelley, a polemical work that re-examines the poet's life from "new views." Its value lies in presenting a strongly judgmental narrative approach characteristic of early Shelley biography: the author is not content merely to lay out the life, but questions received accounts and offers his own interpretations, so the book reads more as a sustained argument than a smooth chronology. For readers already familiar with the basic outline of Shelley's life, it offers an alternative perspective and helps illuminate how biographical writing itself is shaped by stance and period taste. As a free Project Gutenberg ebook, it is convenient for searching and comparative reading. In terms of reading context, it is suited to being read alongside Shelley's poetry and standard Shelley biographies as comparative material; it is not suitable as a first introductory life narrative, nor should it be cited directly as definitive historical scholarship.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers who have read an introductory life of Shelley and want to encounter early biographical perspectives
- Literature students studying English Romantic poetry and the history of biography
- Readers who enjoy argumentative biographical narrative and can tolerate the author's stance
- Researchers who need a free public-domain English source for comparative reading
Not a good fit for
- Readers encountering Shelley for the first time who need a smooth introductory biography
- Those expecting a neutral, definitive life narrative
- Readers who struggle with long English sentences and have no aids
Reading tips
- Read a standard overview of Shelley's life first, then approach this volume, to avoid being swayed by a single stance.
- Note down the author's challenges to received accounts as you go, and revisit after each chapter to judge whether they hold up.
- Read alongside Shelley's poems from the same period, noting the gap between the biographical narrative and the poetic texts.
- There is no need to read straight through; select chapters by biographical phase of interest and use them as comparative material.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
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FAQ
Can I read Volume 2 without having read Volume 1?
Yes, but it will feel disjointed. Volume 2 continues the biographical threads and polemical line of the previous volume, and plunging in directly may leave you unsure which older accounts the author is responding to. It is best to know at least the basic outline of Shelley's life, or to catch up on the key points of Volume 1, before reading this volume.Are this book's views still reliable today?
They should be treated as one voice among many. It belongs to the strongly judgmental mode of early Shelley biography, and its value lies in presenting the polemical perspective of a particular era rather than in offering today's scholarly consensus. Before citing specific claims, check them against later biographies and scholarship.Do I need to be familiar with Shelley's poetry before reading this book?
Not strictly, but familiarity will noticeably improve the reading experience. The biography often discusses the connection between the poet's life and work; without any sense of the major works, you may see only the arguments without grasping what they refer to. It is best to read a few representative poems first.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Jeaffreson, John Cordy, 1831-1901 AuthorJohn Cordy Jeaffreson (1831–1901) was a British author known for his histories of professions such as law and medicine and for biographies of literary figures. His works focus chiefly on the records and anecdotes of the English legal and medical professions, as in A Book About Lawyers and A Book About Doctors, presenting the daily life and character of these professional groups in a clear, anecdote-rich narrative. He also wrote the two-volume The Real Shelley. New Views of the Poet's Life, which seeks to re-examine Shelley's life through documentary evidence, reflecting his documentary and historically grounded approach. Jeaffreson's writing combines archival compilation with readability, leaving a useful body of work on nineteenth-century British professional history and literary biography. Because public information is limited, details of his life are difficult to set out, yet his subjects and style can still be glimpsed through these works.