Constructing Coleridge examines Coleridge's penchant for re-invention and carefully demonstrates how the Coleridge family editors followed his lead in constructing his posthumous reputation. Following his death in 1834, the family editors faced immediate scandals and sought to construct the Coleridge they preferred in these trying circumstances.
'Alan Vardy has written an absorbing study about the making of Coleridge both about Coleridge's own attempts to forge an image of himself for public consumption, and also about the ways in which his family and followers sought to re-create him in various ways during his long posthumous afterlife. Vardy tells his story with great scholarship and sympathy, in a book that all admirers of Coleridge will want to read.' - Seamus Perry, Lecturer in English, University of Oxford, UK
'Vardy's book offers fresh perspectives and adds a lot of detail...' - H.J. Jackson at TLS
'Vardy's book offers fresh perspectives and adds a lot of detail...' - H.J. Jackson at TLS