’Drawing on a wide range of research in literature and the history of science, Martin Priestman’s in-depth exploration of Darwin’s poetry is important not only for its illumination of Darwinian scholarship, but also for its use of Darwin to reassess the relationships between the British Enlightenment and the Romantic period’. Patricia Fara, Clare College, Cambridge, author of Erasmus Darwin: Sex, Science, and Serendipity ’Martin Priestman’s new book is an authoritative and wide-ranging survey on the place of Darwin as a significant writer and poet in the Enlightenment and Romantic eras’. Desmond King-Hele, FRS, author of Erasmus Darwin: A Life of Unequalled Achievement ’...[A] thought-provoking read.’ Anglisik 'The results of this examination are fascinating. Darwin has long been recognized as an intriguing man with polymath interests, as a physician, an inventor, a radical in his politics, and a poet ... Darwin's poems are lengthy, written in heroic couplets, and are perhaps not best suited to our modern tastes, but Priestman gives a good account of them and the ideas they communicate. He provides an admirably clear summary of the poems' content and in doing so has had to master an encyclopedic range of knowledge himself.' Times Literary Supplement '... [A] comprehensive, exciting, and truly indispensible achievement. Priestman has given us a fresh, thoroughgoing literary critical image of Darwin's oeuvre: poetic and scientific in inextricable measure, The Poetry of Erasmus Darwin bristles with insights and fuel for future work, and demonstrates, by compendious scholarship and lively example, the now elusive delights of Darwin's late-Enlightenment style.' Review of English Studies 'The Poetry of Erasmus Dmwin is a welcome addition to a growing body of scholarship, comprising Dr. Darwin's poetic works as a whole. ... readers can trust [Preiestman's] leadership and enjoy his enthusiasm even as they admire his scholarship.' Wordsworth Circle
