The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Volume 12 : Marginalia : Part 5, Sherlock to Unidentified

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, H.J. Jackson (Editor), George Whalley (Editor)

In his introduction to this edition of Coleridge's Marginalia , the late George Whalley wrote, "There is no body of marginalia--in English, or perhaps in any other language--comparable with Coleridge's in range and variety and in the sensitiveness, scope, and depth of his reaction to what he was reading." The Princeton edition of the Marginalia , of which this is the fifth volume, will bring together over eight thousand notes, many never before printed, varying from a single word to substantial essays. In alphabetical order of authors, the notes are presented literatim from the original manuscripts whenever the annotated volumes can be found. Each note is preceded by the passage of the original text that appears to have provoked Coleridge's comment. Texts in foreign languages are followed by translations.


The present volume comprises annotations on more than sixty books (from Sherlock to "Unidentified"), including well-known works by Sir Philip Sidney, Southey, Spinoza, Swift, and Tennyson. There are extensive notes on texts by Heinrich Steffens, Emanuel Swedenborg, and Jeremy Taylor; on two histories of philosophy by Thomas Stanley and W. G. Tennemann; and also on the writings of St. Teresa of Avila. The subjects addressed range from literature and philosophy through religion, politics, history, and biography, to travel-writing and science.

896 pages, Hardcover

First published December 7, 1999

About the author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as his major prose work Biographia Literaria.