Books by Martin Priestman

In his study of Erasmus Darwin's major poetry, Priestman situates his literary works and Darwin himself within a network of other scientists, writers, thinkers and social movers and shakers. Positing a significant shift from the Enlightenment's emphases on conceptual spaces to the Romantic period's emphases on historical time.

The poetry of William Cowper (1731-1800) heralded a simpler and more natural style than the classical style of Pope and his imitators, thus prefiguring the profound innovations of Romanticism. This book, which was originally published in 1983, is the first complete critical study of his major long poem The Task.