Desire and restraint in Shelley

Shelley's biographers have usually made little attempt to give a connected interpretation of the facts they exhibit; and other writers on Shelley have, for the most part, either restricted themselves to the minute examination of particular problems or else pronounced broad judgments without setting forth in detail the data on which those judgments are based. A new study was needed, it seemed to me, uniting with a connected interpretation such biographical and other data as may be necessary to support it. The present work is intended in part to supply that need. My primary aim has been to present a consecutive account of Shelley's development, as a thinker, a poet, and a responsible member of society, from the attitude of revolt, through conflict and suffering, to the attitude of compromise in his relations with the world and with his own soul. In addition, I have sought to correlate more completely than has been done before the several interests that occupied his thought -- politics, religion, benevolence, poetry, love -- and to portray him, not merely as a dreamer and a romantic poet of idealism, but as an earnest and perplexed citizen of the actual world, struggling to adjust himself to his environment, to secure his own happiness, and to achieve success in the work that he conceived to be his particular contribution to human welfare. My work has been facilitated by the recent publication of the volumes of the new Julian Edition of Shelley's Works which contain the letters, some of which had not before been published. I have found Dowden's Life of Shelley indispensable as a biographical guide. Other biographical works, those written by Shelley's friends and companions above all, I have, of course, found very valuable. For the text of the poetry I have used Forman's edition; for the prose writings, Forman's edition not being available, I have had recourse to the recent reprint of Shepherd's edition. I have read substantially all the important criticism relating to Shelley, and have taken account of it wherever it bears upon my own opinions, making due acknowledgment in such casesEnglis