"Genial" Perception

William C. Edinger was a professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He was a specialist in poetry and 18th century literature and was a founder of the English Department Honors Program. He passed away in 2021.

• AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroductionChapter One: “Genial” PerceptionChapter Two: The Imagination / Fancy Distinction and the Tradition of Critical BinariesChapter Three: Critical Binaries of the Mid- and Later Eighteenth Century Chapter Four: Local Unity of Effect in Wordsworth and Coleridge Chapter Five: Perceptual Naturalism in Wordsworth (I): Artful and “Natural” Beholding; Languages of Art and Languages of “Nature”Chapter Six: Perceptual Naturalism in Wordsworth (II): Longinian Beholding and Wordsworth’s New Pictorialism Chapter Seven: The Shaftesburyan InheritanceChapter Eight: “Genial” Perception and LiteracyChapter Nine: Wordsworth’s Revisions to the Snowdon Episode Conclusion: The Philology of Unacknowledged IndebtednessAppendix A: The Snowdon PassagesAppendix B: “Soul” and “Imagination” in The Prelude Notes

‘While previous studies have shown the limitations of the Romantics’ claims to originality, Edinger brings welcomed depth and breadth to the discussion. With detailed analysis, he documents specific debts across a wide range of texts, many of which deserve greater critical attention. The result is an especially rich understanding of Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s intellectual inheritance… [“Genial” Perception] reflects a lifetime of reading and study applied to an accessible, persuasive argument.’ Christopher D. Johnson, 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era