Wordsworth the man has always eluded me--what was the nature of the extraordinary magnetism that inspired such impassioned devotion in his sister and Coleridge? (The complexity of the Coleridge relationship reminds me of Shelley's response to being in Byron's orbit: "The sun has extinguished the glow worm.") Coleridge here, as always, is a more sympathetic figure--ferociously intelligent, talented, weak and exasperating. A very interesting and erudite book. (Have to confess my own predilection: was always reading with an eye to a mention of the younger Romantics. Byron much admired Coleridge and, as is well known, tried to help him financially, with publishing and at Drury Lane; Wordsworth thought B "insane," and, predictably, found Don Juan degenerate. Both men met Keats, who basked in Coleridge's company and had an unpleasantly haughty impression of Wordsworth. Shelley, it seems, was spared an encounter with the poet he idolized.) ( )

Brings out the more temporal aspects of the famous friendship and its fractures. Great insight into the poets' circle and times. Clear and lucid writing, as ever A.S Byatt. ( )