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Laon and Cythna
Laon and Cythna is one of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s most celebrated, and most controversial, literary works. At once philosophical treatise and love story, it follows the adventures of a pair of siblings who lead a political uprising based on socialist, feminist, and ecological ideals, only to be executed for treason. In its own time Shelley’s poem was condemned by some for promoting sedition, atheism, promiscuity, and incest, while others praised its beauty and radical vision. Although it inspired a generation of writers and activists, today Laon and Cythna is hardly read except by scholars. This edition seeks to correct that oversight and to introduce new audiences to this important and powerful text.
Historical appendices provide context for Shelley’s political and philosophical ideas, contemporary feminism, and the treatment of Asia and the Middle East in Romantic literature.
Historical appendices provide context for Shelley’s political and philosophical ideas, contemporary feminism, and the treatment of Asia and the Middle East in Romantic literature.
- GenresPoetry
304 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 1988
About the author
Percy Bysshe Shelley
1,704 books1,433 followersWorks of Percy Bysshe Shelley, British romantic poet, include "To a Skylark" in 1820;
Prometheus Unbound
, the lyric drama; and "Adonais," an elegy of 1821 to John Keats.
The Cenci , work of art or literature of Percy Bysshe Shelley of 1819, depicts Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman.
People widely consider Percy Bysshe Shelley among the finest majors of the English language. He is perhaps most famous for such anthology pieces as Ozymandias , Ode to the West Wind , and The Masque of Anarchy . His major long visionary Alastor , The Revolt of Islam , and the unfinished The Triumph of Life .
Unconventional life and uncompromising idealism of Percy Bysshe Shelley combined with his strong skeptical voice to make an authoritative and much denigrated figure during his life. He became the idol of the next two or three generations, the major Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, as well as William Butler Yeats and in other languages, such as Jibanananda Das and Subramanya Bharathy . Karl Marx, Henry Stephens Salt, and [authorm:Bertrand Russell] also admired him. Famous for his association with his contemporaries Lord Byron, he also married Mary Shelley, novelist.
The Cenci , work of art or literature of Percy Bysshe Shelley of 1819, depicts Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman.
People widely consider Percy Bysshe Shelley among the finest majors of the English language. He is perhaps most famous for such anthology pieces as Ozymandias , Ode to the West Wind , and The Masque of Anarchy . His major long visionary Alastor , The Revolt of Islam , and the unfinished The Triumph of Life .
Unconventional life and uncompromising idealism of Percy Bysshe Shelley combined with his strong skeptical voice to make an authoritative and much denigrated figure during his life. He became the idol of the next two or three generations, the major Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, as well as William Butler Yeats and in other languages, such as Jibanananda Das and Subramanya Bharathy . Karl Marx, Henry Stephens Salt, and [authorm:Bertrand Russell] also admired him. Famous for his association with his contemporaries Lord Byron, he also married Mary Shelley, novelist.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 26, 2018
The poetry is really nice, there are some really moving passages, but the story-telling, for the most parts, lacks subtlety. It felt like I was being beaten over the head with a beautifully gilded bludgeon.
July 18, 2015
Shelly bemoans the failure of the revolution
9 April 2013
It seems that poor Percy Shelley had problems upsetting people with his poems because when he went to publish Laon and Cyntha in its original form the publishers refused to accept it and told him to pretty much rewrite it. Well, that is not surprising coming from publishers, particularly when one is writing something that is overtly political and, as in Shelley's case, anti-religious. As such he did rewrite it, titling it the Revolt of Islam despite the fact that it had nothing to do with Islam, expect in an allegorical sense.
In his introduction Shelley comments on literary critics and suggests that he is not writing this poem to please the literary critics since in doing so it can chain one's ability to write in the way that one really wishes to write. I sometimes wonder how many people write (whether it be books or movies) these days to simply warm up to the literary critic. In a sense the critic can effectively make or break a movie (or a book) and it is surprising how many people will actually pay attention to a critic. I must admit that I do, and I guess part of it has to do with there being so many books out there and not enough time to read all of them. I also guess that is why a website like Goodreads is also good because I can find out what a book is like (such as 50 Shades of Grey or Eat, Pray, Love) without having to waste my time actually reading it.
As for the poem, well it seems that despite his ranting about how he refuses to chain himself to the whims of the critic, he was forced to change his poem, but I suspect it has more to do with his publishers than the critics. Mind you, it is not as if Shelley really had to scrape money together to buy bread since it appears that he was independently wealthy, though I suspect that most of the writers (and composers) in those days generally were financially sufficient. It would have something to do with the fact that only the middle and upper classes who tended to be literate. It is only from the mid-nineteenth century that we begin to see the lower classes becoming literate as well (though I have been to places where there is a high level of illiteracy – hold it, that could be Australia, couldn't it?).
Anyway, this poem is about revolution, and in a sense it a dirge about the failure of the French Revolution. The date of composition is pretty much after the Congress of Vienna which decided on how to move forward after the wholesale destruction of the Napoleonic Wars. I sort of wonder why Shelley mourns the failure of the revolution after the restoration of the French Monarch when it was quite clear that the revolution had finally come full swing with the ascension of Napoleon to the position of Emperor of France. It probably had something to do with Napoleon not actually being an aristocrat. Still, his so called Republics where little more than puppet states ruled by members of his family and were subservient to him. Despite the fact that Napoleon was not a member of any royal family does not mean that he was not an autocrat - he was.
I guess the problem was not so much the fact that French remained an autocracy, but rather that after the Congress of Vienna the monarchy was restablished in France with all of its attendant flaws. However, France could never go back to what it was like before the revolution. This had changed and changed drastically. Revolutionary fever was going to continue to boil up under the surface, and it would finally explode once again in 1848 when the monarch was swept from power and a new Napoleon would arise to take the throne.
9 April 2013
It seems that poor Percy Shelley had problems upsetting people with his poems because when he went to publish Laon and Cyntha in its original form the publishers refused to accept it and told him to pretty much rewrite it. Well, that is not surprising coming from publishers, particularly when one is writing something that is overtly political and, as in Shelley's case, anti-religious. As such he did rewrite it, titling it the Revolt of Islam despite the fact that it had nothing to do with Islam, expect in an allegorical sense.
In his introduction Shelley comments on literary critics and suggests that he is not writing this poem to please the literary critics since in doing so it can chain one's ability to write in the way that one really wishes to write. I sometimes wonder how many people write (whether it be books or movies) these days to simply warm up to the literary critic. In a sense the critic can effectively make or break a movie (or a book) and it is surprising how many people will actually pay attention to a critic. I must admit that I do, and I guess part of it has to do with there being so many books out there and not enough time to read all of them. I also guess that is why a website like Goodreads is also good because I can find out what a book is like (such as 50 Shades of Grey or Eat, Pray, Love) without having to waste my time actually reading it.
As for the poem, well it seems that despite his ranting about how he refuses to chain himself to the whims of the critic, he was forced to change his poem, but I suspect it has more to do with his publishers than the critics. Mind you, it is not as if Shelley really had to scrape money together to buy bread since it appears that he was independently wealthy, though I suspect that most of the writers (and composers) in those days generally were financially sufficient. It would have something to do with the fact that only the middle and upper classes who tended to be literate. It is only from the mid-nineteenth century that we begin to see the lower classes becoming literate as well (though I have been to places where there is a high level of illiteracy – hold it, that could be Australia, couldn't it?).
Anyway, this poem is about revolution, and in a sense it a dirge about the failure of the French Revolution. The date of composition is pretty much after the Congress of Vienna which decided on how to move forward after the wholesale destruction of the Napoleonic Wars. I sort of wonder why Shelley mourns the failure of the revolution after the restoration of the French Monarch when it was quite clear that the revolution had finally come full swing with the ascension of Napoleon to the position of Emperor of France. It probably had something to do with Napoleon not actually being an aristocrat. Still, his so called Republics where little more than puppet states ruled by members of his family and were subservient to him. Despite the fact that Napoleon was not a member of any royal family does not mean that he was not an autocrat - he was.
I guess the problem was not so much the fact that French remained an autocracy, but rather that after the Congress of Vienna the monarchy was restablished in France with all of its attendant flaws. However, France could never go back to what it was like before the revolution. This had changed and changed drastically. Revolutionary fever was going to continue to boil up under the surface, and it would finally explode once again in 1848 when the monarch was swept from power and a new Napoleon would arise to take the throne.
February 23, 2026
i have so many emotions about this!
the incest was top-notch, and the imagery... very tasty. everything else? terribly naive and full of orientalism but he gets bonus points for being loudly atheist on main. the feminist rhetoric was honestly more adorable than anything else to a 21st century female-adjacent reader, but i respect the dedication to loving women and all things feminine percy bysshe shelley demonstrates in this poem.
(reading laon and cythna also inspired me to read that one article about shelley's "imaginative transsexualism" as the author put it and i'm infinitely grateful for that. strongly believe she was actually a woman now.)
i also noticed that for all the characters' eager dismissal of religion the supernatural elements in the story (winged people, spirits in the sky, the whole idea for a paradise for good people after they die) obviously draw on christian imagery, and i wonder if that's on purpose—i mean, i want to think it is, but i wouldn't be surprised if someone simply couldn't, or chose not to, reexamine their christian background and culture.
anyway, loved this, kinda broke my brain reading this as a non-native speaker, would love to read more stuff like this.
the incest was top-notch, and the imagery... very tasty. everything else? terribly naive and full of orientalism but he gets bonus points for being loudly atheist on main. the feminist rhetoric was honestly more adorable than anything else to a 21st century female-adjacent reader, but i respect the dedication to loving women and all things feminine percy bysshe shelley demonstrates in this poem.
(reading laon and cythna also inspired me to read that one article about shelley's "imaginative transsexualism" as the author put it and i'm infinitely grateful for that. strongly believe she was actually a woman now.)
i also noticed that for all the characters' eager dismissal of religion the supernatural elements in the story (winged people, spirits in the sky, the whole idea for a paradise for good people after they die) obviously draw on christian imagery, and i wonder if that's on purpose—i mean, i want to think it is, but i wouldn't be surprised if someone simply couldn't, or chose not to, reexamine their christian background and culture.
anyway, loved this, kinda broke my brain reading this as a non-native speaker, would love to read more stuff like this.
April 22, 2023
Heavy and controversial poem! This edition – Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of The Golden City is the original version Shelly intended to publish. His wife, Mary Shelley edited the poem after his death and named it The Revolt of Islam, and removed themes such as incest and atheism to make it less controversial. The two lovers, Laon and Cythna, are siblings in the original poem, "who lead a political uprising predicated on socialist, feminist, and ecological ideals, only to be executed for treason" (A.N. 9).
The introduction and preface make the text a lot clearer, and I highly recommend everyone read them before starting the poem, as it helps to understand the author's intent.
Overall, while Laon and Cythna is considered "one of three great epic poems of the Romantic period," it remains very controversial to this day.
The introduction and preface make the text a lot clearer, and I highly recommend everyone read them before starting the poem, as it helps to understand the author's intent.
Overall, while Laon and Cythna is considered "one of three great epic poems of the Romantic period," it remains very controversial to this day.
March 28, 2022
It's silly to say as some do that this has nothing to do with the revised title. It has everything to do with it, as Shelley's friend, Byron, died opposing that ideology in the form of enslavement by them of Greece in their day.
July 1, 2022
I have not done a review but I have made a reading which is posted in parts on my blog.
The Revolt of Islam, Shelly.
https://notthegrubstreetjournal.com/2...
The Revolt of Islam, Shelly.
https://notthegrubstreetjournal.com/2...
May 3, 2023
my mission to find something good written by this nerd will never be completed.
maybe ill start a mission to find something where he doesnt groom a 12 year old. probably equally impossible
maybe ill start a mission to find something where he doesnt groom a 12 year old. probably equally impossible
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews