15 h 36 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a poet turns his searching eye on poetry, friendship, and the workings of his own mind?
In Biographia Literaria, Samuel Taylor Coleridge blends memories of his life with literary criticism and philosophy. He moves from school days under James Bowyer to arguments about how the mind makes meaning. His aim is personal and demanding: to show how his opinions take shape, and why good criticism needs firm principles.
At the heart of the book is poetry itself. Coleridge explores imagination, fancy, and poetic faith, then brings his ideas to the work of his friend William Wordsworth. Their shared Lyrical Ballads becomes a starting point for questions about belief and poetic language. Friendship does not keep him from weighing a poet's faults alongside his gifts.
What you’ll discover
- Imagination and fancy Explore Coleridge's distinction between the power that creates and the faculty that rearranges.
- A poet reads Wordsworth Watch close attention and unusual honesty shape a friend's assessment of poetic faults and gifts.
- The choice to believe Consider poetic faith through Coleridge's account of the plan behind Lyrical Ballads.
- The mind makes meaning Follow his turn toward German philosophy as he seeks principles for judging poetry.
- An education in judgment Meet the schoolboy and stern teacher at the beginning of Coleridge's history of his opinions.
Who will love it
For readers who love poetry and want to know how a poet thinks about it, and anyone curious about Romantic ideas of mind and art.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Good taste in poetry is trained early
- Critics owe writers fairness and reasons
- Association alone cannot explain the mind
- All knowing begins with the knowing self
- Imagination creates and fancy only rearranges
- Poetry asks us to believe by choice
- Poetic language is not simply country speech
- Judge a poet by faults and by gifts
- A book of flaws that still shaped criticism
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 15 h 36 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then 0,14 USD a day in your first year on the yearly plan and 0,27 USD a day after, or 0,66 USD a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear Biographia Literaria in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Biographia Literaria
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge · 1817
Coleridge explores imagination, fancy and poetic faith to show what the mind brings to a poem.
Challenging10–20 hours to read25 languages
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then 0,14 USD a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
In short
Biographia Literaria is a book Samuel Taylor Coleridge published in 1817, near the end of his most productive years. It began as a short preface to a collection of his poems and grew into two volumes.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Good taste in poetry is trained early
Coleridge opens with his own education. He was a pupil at Christ's Hospital in London, and he gives special thanks to the headmaster of the upper school, James Bowyer. Bowyer was strict, and he scorned loose, showy verse. He taught his boys that poetry has a logic of its own, as firm as that of science, and that every word in a good poem must have a reason to be there.
Bowyer made his pupils translate and examine the great Greek and Latin poets, and he made them ask why a poet chose one word over another. He mocked the stock phrases of the day, such as invoking the Muses or Pegasus, the winged horse of poetry. He preferred the plain strength of Shakespeare and Milton to the polished manner of the eighteenth century. Coleridge says this training gave him a habit he never lost, which was to test a line by asking whether it would still make sense if you changed its words.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
Free gifts
580 USD in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
170 USDFREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
120 USDFREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
60 USDFREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
60 USDFREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
170 USDFREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Biographia Literaria
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is Biographia Literaria about?
It is Coleridge's mix of memoir, philosophy and criticism. He tells how his tastes and opinions formed, argues for a theory of imagination, and examines Wordsworth's ideas about poetic language and his poems.
What is the difference between imagination and fancy in Coleridge?
Coleridge says imagination is a creative power that dissolves and reshapes material into a living whole, while fancy only rearranges fixed images taken from memory, without changing them.
What does willing suspension of disbelief mean?
It is Coleridge's phrase for the reader's choice to accept an unreal or supernatural story for a time. The poet gives it human truth, and the reader grants poetic faith in return.
The author
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1772–1834 · English Romantic poet and critic
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher. He was born in Ottery St Mary, Devon, and died in Highgate, London. He published Lyrical Ballads with William Wordsworth in 1798. His Biographia Literaria appeared in 1817. He also lived in Somerset and the Lake District.
More by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
All 3 booksMore like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
