Books in the Reading Writers and their Work series

John Keats (1795-1821), one of the best-loved poets of the Romantic period, is ever alive to words, discovering his purposes as he reads - not only books but also the world around him. Leading Keats scholar Susan J. Wolfson explores the breadth of his works, including his longest ever poem Endymion; subsequent romances, Isabella (a Boccaccio tale with a proto-Marxian edge admired by George Bernard Shaw), the passionate Eve of St Agnes and knotty Lamia; intricate sonnets and innovative odes; the unfinished Hyperion project (Keats's existential rethinking of epic agony); and late lyrics involved with Fanny Brawne, the bright (sometimes dark) star of his last years. Illustrated with manuscript pages, title-pages, and two portraits, Reading John Keats investigates the brilliant complexities of Keats's imagination and his genius in wordplay, uncovering surprises and new delights, and encouraging renewed respect for the power of Keats's thinking and the subtle turns of his writing.

The great fourteenth-century poem Piers Plowman is one of the most dazzling literary creations of the English Middle Ages. Emily Steiner's book, indispensable to students and scholars, shows readers how to navigate the poem's experimental poetics, as well as its complex ideas about love, salvation and social justice.

Saree Makdisi offers a fresh and imaginative approach to reading William Blake, grounded in the latest research. This unique study inspires a deeper understanding of Blake's creative processes and encourages personal explorations of his work.

A powerful new account of Hardy's novels by a leading scholar, emphasizing their affirmative elements and their often poetic prose. George Levine provides an overview of Hardy's entire fictional canon, drawing attention to the influence of Charles Darwin on his work and Hardy's own impact on Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence.

An original and highly engaging account of one of the most influential writers in the history of English literature, by novelist and leading academic Jenny Davidson. Looking at Austen's novels through a writer's lens the book considers how Jane Austen's fiction works and why it matters.