Nigel Leask was appointed to Glasgow's Regius Chair of English Language and Literature in 2004, and is currently Head of the School of Critical Studies. He was previously Reader in Romantic Literature in the English Faculty at Cambridge University. He has published widely in the area of Romantic literature and culture, with a special emphasis on empire, orientalism, and travel writing, as well as Scottish literature and thought 1750-1850. His most recent book, Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland (Oxford University Press, 2010) won the Saltire Prize for the best Scottish Research Book of 2010. He has also taught at the universities of Bologna and the UNAM, Mexico City. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

• INTRODUCTION: 'THE HEAVEN-TAUGHT PLOUGHMAN' ; 1. Burns and the 'New Husbandry' ; 2. Scots Pastoral ; 3. The Making of a Poet ; 4. Pastoral Politics ; 5. Beasties ; 6. Hellfire and Commonsense ; 7. The Annals of the Poor ; 8. The Deil and the Exciseman ; 9. Across the Shadow Line: Burns and British Romanticism ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEX

In Robert Burns and Pastoral, Leask updates the "big" book on Burns' for a twenty-first-century audience, situating Burns within a complex frame of national and international historical forces and ideas.

Nigel Leask was appointed to Glasgow's Regius Chair of English Language and Literature in 2004, and is currently Head of the School of Critical Studies. He was previously Reader in Romantic Literature in the English Faculty at Cambridge University. He has published widely in the area of Romantic literature and culture, with a special emphasis on empire, orientalism, and travel writing, as well as Scottish literature and thought 1750-1850. His most recent book, Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland (Oxford University Press, 2010) won the Saltire Prize for the best Scottish Research Book of 2010. He has also taught at the universities of Bologna and the UNAM, Mexico City. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

• INTRODUCTION: 'THE HEAVEN-TAUGHT PLOUGHMAN' ; 1. Burns and the 'New Husbandry' ; 2. Scots Pastoral ; 3. The Making of a Poet ; 4. Pastoral Politics ; 5. Beasties ; 6. Hellfire and Commonsense ; 7. The Annals of the Poor ; 8. The Deil and the Exciseman ; 9. Across the Shadow Line: Burns and British Romanticism ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEX

In Robert Burns and Pastoral, Leask updates the "big" book on Burns' for a twenty-first-century audience, situating Burns within a complex frame of national and international historical forces and ideas.

Nigel Leask was appointed to Glasgow's Regius Chair of English Language and Literature in 2004, and is currently Head of the School of Critical Studies. He was previously Reader in Romantic Literature in the English Faculty at Cambridge University. He has published widely in the area of Romantic literature and culture, with a special emphasis on empire, orientalism, and travel writing, as well as Scottish literature and thought 1750-1850. His most recent book, Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late-18th Century Scotland (Oxford University Press, 2010) won the Saltire Prize for the best Scottish Research Book of 2010. He has also taught at the universities of Bologna and the UNAM, Mexico City. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

• INTRODUCTION: 'THE HEAVEN-TAUGHT PLOUGHMAN' ; 1. Burns and the 'New Husbandry' ; 2. Scots Pastoral ; 3. The Making of a Poet ; 4. Pastoral Politics ; 5. Beasties ; 6. Hellfire and Commonsense ; 7. The Annals of the Poor ; 8. The Deil and the Exciseman ; 9. Across the Shadow Line: Burns and British Romanticism ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEX

In Robert Burns and Pastoral, Leask updates the "big" book on Burns' for a twenty-first-century audience, situating Burns within a complex frame of national and international historical forces and ideas.