Prelude

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) was an English Romantic poet. James Engell, the Gurney Professor of English and Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Harvard University, chaired the Department of English there for seven years. He is author of four previous books and more than fifty articles and book chapters about eighteenth-century and romantic literature, higher education in America, and environmental studies. He was a senior fellow at the National Humanities Center and elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Michael D. Raymond has studied the poetry of William Wordsworth for decades—a catalyst for his life-long search for deeply rooted, private places of remembrance. After earning a B.A. in English from Yale, he received his M.A. from Harvard and a PhD from Fordham University.

• Introduction: ’The Prelude: Place, Self, Crisis, and ImaginationMaps: The Lake District, Wordsworth’s Walking Tour of the Alps, Summer 1790Book FirstINTRODUCTION-CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL-TIMEBook SecondSCHOOL-TIME CONTINUEDBook ThirdRESIDENCE AT CAMBRIDGEBook FourthSUMMER VACATIONBook FifthBOOKSBook SixthCAMBRIDGE AND THE ALPSBook SeventhRESIDENCE IN LONDONBook EighthRETROSPECT-LOVE OF NATURE LEADING TO LOVE OF MANKINDBook NinthRESIDENCE IN FRANCEBook TenthRESIDENCE IN FRANCE AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONBook EleventhIMAGINATION, HOW IMPAIRED AND RESTOREDBook TwelfthSAME SUBJECT, CONTINUEDBook ThirteenthCONCLUSIONTO WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, S. T. ColeridgeA Note on the Text and Editorial PracticeChronologySelected Bibliography and Scholarly Editions of The PreludeAcknowledgmentsAfterword by Helen Vendler

“An outsize, gorgeous book, replete with paintings and drawings―landscapes, houses, portraits―contemporaneous with the poem. At last we have a worthy visual counterpart to one of the timeless monuments of English verse. Provides American readers with a sound sense not merely of where Wordsworth was but―through its lavish illustrations―what he found so rousing. The book clarifies how and why he became England’s best-loved nature poet.”