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This is one of the most exquisitely-crafted books I have ever had the privilege of reading. Swann sets out to complicate the idea that biographical fascination is simply retrograde, sentimental, canonizing, or ideological; she shows how our fascination with these poets is bound up with the way they seem to live on past natural life, suspended in a kind of posthumous time. With modesty, tact, yet also with the assurance of a deeply felt calling, this book addresses the largest questions that we face as readers of literature: Why read? Why read poetry? What is it to love poetry? What is romantic poetry? How best to think about poetry's, or romanticism's, mode of afterlife or living-on in our dark times? -- Marc Redfield, Brown University Through brilliant, thoughtful, original analysis of the writings by and about three major poets of the romantic era, Swann untangles a central question at stake in author love: what counts as an author's `life,' anyway? Swann is possessed of a prose style that is both clear and, at times, breath-takingly surprising. A beautifully conceived, organized, and written study. -- Adela Pinch, University of Michigan

This is one of the most exquisitely-crafted books I have ever had the privilege of reading. Swann sets out to complicate the idea that biographical fascination is simply retrograde, sentimental, canonizing, or ideological; she shows how our fascination with these poets is bound up with the way they seem to live on past natural life, suspended in a kind of posthumous time. With modesty, tact, yet also with the assurance of a deeply felt calling, this book addresses the largest questions that we face as readers of literature: Why read? Why read poetry? What is it to love poetry? What is romantic poetry? How best to think about poetry's, or romanticism's, mode of afterlife or living-on in our dark times? -- Marc Redfield, Brown University Through brilliant, thoughtful, original analysis of the writings by and about three major poets of the romantic era, Swann untangles a central question at stake in author love: what counts as an author's `life,' anyway? Swann is possessed of a prose style that is both clear and, at times, breath-takingly surprising. A beautifully conceived, organized, and written study. -- Adela Pinch, University of Michigan

This is one of the most exquisitely crafted books I have ever had the privilege of reading. Swann sets out to complicate the idea that biographical fascination is simply retrograde, sentimental, canonizing, or ideological. With the assurance of a deeply felt calling, this book addresses the largest questions that we face as readers of literature. -- Marc Redfield, Brown University Through brilliant, thoughtful, original analysis of the writings by and about three major poets of the romantic era, Swann untangles a central question at stake in author love: what counts as an author's `life,' anyway? Swann is possessed of a prose style that is both clear and, at times, breath-takingly surprising. A beautifully conceived, organized, and written study. -- Adela Pinch, University of Michigan

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Karen Swann is Morris Professor of Rhetoric Emerita in the Williams College English Department. She currently teaches at Bard Microcollege Holyoke.

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