The Works of Thomas Chatterton: Volume 2 The Poems Attributed to Rowley

Thomas Chatterton , Edited by Joseph Cottle , Robert Southey

ISBN 10: 1108063381 / ISBN 13: 9781108063388

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2013

About this Item

548 pages. 8.50x5.59x1.50 inches. In Stock. This item is printed on demand.

Seller Inventory # __1108063381

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Works of Thomas Chatterton: Volume 2 The Poems Attributed to Rowley
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108063381
• ISBN 13: 9781108063388
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.7 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

Thomas Chatterton (1752–70) was only seventeen when he died of arsenic poisoning. Among his family and friends he was known as a versifier with a fascination for medieval manuscripts, but none suspected the true scope of his work. At eleven, he was already writing poetry, and by the end of his life his love poems, eclogues and forged medieval pieces numbered in the hundreds. They were to influence the Romantics for decades after his death. This three-volume collection of his work, edited by Joseph Cottle and Robert Southey, first appeared in 1803. Volume 2 contains the Rowley poems, for which Chatterton is best known. Ironically, they were never published under his own name in his lifetime: he claimed that the poems were transcripts he had taken from the work of Thomas Rowley, a fifteenth-century monk. The value of these ambitious forgeries is still underappreciated.

Book Description

Thomas Chatterton (1752-70), Wordsworth's 'marvellous boy', died aged only seventeen, but his legacy influenced the Romantics for decades. First published in 1803, this three-volume collection brings together his works. Volume 2 is devoted to the expertly forged Rowley poems, Chatterton's crowning achievement.