Robert Burns

by Gerard Carruthers

This book treats Burns' work from the first publication of his poetry in 178 to his song writing and collecting which predominated in the 1790s. It encompasses discussion of Burns' social and religious satires, his political comment and his utterances on love and gender. In line with modern Burns scholarship, this study reads Burns' against both his Scottish and British literary backgrounds and emphasises, particularly, Burns' construction of his poetic persona. As a key element of this latter aspect, the treatment considers Burns against his poetic space for himself as a Scot makes him a crucial Enlightenment and proto-Romantic figure. The book debunks the myth of Burns as 'this heaven-taught ploughman', emphasising his very contemporary understanding of the power of literature, and of the emotions as a vital part of human intellect.

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 1995

About the author

Gerard Carruthers holds the Francis Hutcheson Chair of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.

He is General Editor of the Oxford University Press Edition of the Works of Robert Burns and has published fifteen books and over one hundred academic articles and essays. He works on literature from the 1690s to the 20th century, with particular interests in the long eighteenth-century in Scotland, textual editing and book history. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.