The Hidden Wordsworth: Poet, Lover, Rebel, Spy

By Kenneth R. Johnston

Book Overview

Based on new research in government archives in Britain and France, school and university records and intimate letters, this book is a revealing account of a young poet who lived a life even Byron would have envied. In the narrative, the poet William Wordsworth emerges as a man of action during his youth and early manhood, the time of his life that has been obscured by his more august reputation as a philosophical Nature Poet. The text aims to break through the carefully crafted but frequently misleading accounts of his youth that he created in his later years. It explores Wordsworth's links with radical British reformists, French revolutionary leaders and journalists, and reveals Wordsworth as an agent of the newly formed British secret service on the Continent and at home.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393046230
• ISBN13: 9780393046236
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Length: 965 Pages
• Weight: 3.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 2.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Nothing Under Cover!

I've read Wordsworth my whole life, and my hunched posture, bland disposition, and general resentment of other people's successes are testament to what happens when one gives oneself- like a prom queen- to the WORDSWORTHer. Johnstone does admirable work here, giving us the dirt on the man and the truth about his years in Hollywood. Who knew that Wordsworth was a spy, or that he was the basis of the famous spy vrs spy strip? Johnson's fine research helped me appreciate that strip much more than i had.

Fabulous read!- The Hidden Salami of the Poet

Excellent book! I liked the textual innuendo here, that our most bucolic and turgid of romantic poets was indeed a spy, mostly in the house of love, macking on Dorothea, his sister later of Oz fame, as well as many French Aristocrats and poetesses. This book displays brilliant research and impressive critical girth. The tale of Johnson provides a rich and yeasty reading of Wordsworth's "Prelude" as a love poem to Coleridge, what Johnson calls the foreplay to romanticism itself. Read this book for the rich critical ideas and the saucy details about how, where, and how often the poet hides himself.