The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: Volume VII. The Later Years, Part IV, 1840-1853

This new edition of The Later Years contains over six hundred letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth that have never been published before, and many more that have appeared only in fragmentary or incorrect form. It follows Wordsworth through the troubled years of early Victorian England, provides indispensable material for understanding the later phases of his career, while also offering innumerable insights into the great poems of his prime. Many hitherto unpublished letters reveal his pervasive influence as the poet of Man, Nature, and Society, who was acclaimed in his later years as the first of the great Victorian sages. Others illustrate his life in the Lake District and London, his last literary projects (including the publication of Guilt and Sorrow and The Borderers), and his contacts with a new generation of writers, artists, churchmen, and men of affairs, from both Britain and America. Above all, his correspondence bears witness to his lifelong commitment to poetry. For Dorothy Wordsworth, however, these were years of physical decline and near-silence, and the poet's letters provide a moving record of his struggles to come to terms with the problems and cares that afflicted his immediate family circle.