Lit Cafe: Romantic Age

The Romantic Age
1798-1832

Wordsworth, William

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Lamb, Charles

Austen, Jane

Lord Byron, George Gordon

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Keats, John

Wordsworth, William    1770-1850

William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, England and studied at Hawkshead in the Lake District and at Cambridge. After completing his education, Wordsworth journeyed through France and Switzerland via his feet. When he returned to France in 1790, Wordsworth had an affair with a French girl with whom he had a daughter. With the outbreak of the war in 1793, Wordsworth returned to England to live with his sister in Racedown, Dorset. After moving to Alfoxden, Somerset in 1797, Wordsworth met Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Together, they published Lyrical Ballads (1798), a volume of collected poems. After marrying Mary Hutchinson in 1802, Wordsworth began writing some of his greatest poetry including The Prelude (1805). Before his death at the age of 80, Wordsworth was given the honour of Poet Laureate in 1843.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor    1772-1834

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Ottery St. Mary, Devon, England and was educated at Cambridge. Coleridge became acquainted with Robert Southey and together they went to the United States in search of a communist society found nothing more than hopelessness. After moving to Bristol, he became a teacher and a journalist and married Sara Fricker. The couple later moved to Nether Stowey and became close friends to William Wordsworth and his wife. Coleridge and Wordsworth published Lyrical Ballads, a volume of collected poems, in 1798. His prospects in poetry were soon turned down by Coleridge´s moral collapse. In 1809, Coleridge established a weekly paper, The Friend and moved to London. Other works published by Coleridge included Christabel, and Kubla Khan (both published in 1816). Before his death at the age of 62, Coleridge also published critiques and theological and politico-sociological works.

Lamb Charles (pseudonym Elia)    1775-1834

Charles lamb was born in London, England and was educated at Christ´s Hospital. Before his achievements in writing, Lamb worked as a clerk. In 1807, Lamb jointly published Tales from Shakespeare with his sister Mary. After publishing works for children with his sister, Lamb published his own book of collected poems and prose. Lamb joined the staff of the London Magazine and published a series of essays in Essays of Elia (1823-1833). Lamb died at the age of 59.

Austen, Jane    1775-1817

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, England and later lived in Bath, Southampton, Chawton, and Winchester. Through the period of her life she published four successful novels, Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). All four novels were published anonymously. Her only works which published her name were posthumous, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey (both published in 1818), and Love and Friendship (1922). Austen died at the age of 42.

Lord Byron, George Gordon    1788-1824

George Gordon Byron, the sixth Baron, was born in London, England. After inheriting the title of his great-uncle, Lord Byron moved to Dulwich, Harrow, Cambridge, and from poor to wealthy. In 1807, Lord Byron published the very unsuccessful Hours of Idleness. With the disappointment of his work, Lord Byron travelled to Spain, Malta, Albania, Greece, and the Aegean. Success hit him with his 1812 publication, Childe Harold´s Pilgrimage. Three years later, Lord Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke. After being separated from his wife, Lord Byron travelled Europe and met Percy Bysshe Shelley. With spending two years in Venice, Lord Byron began publishing some of his greatest work including Don Juan (1819-1824). Lord Byron died of malaria at the age of 36 in Missolonghi.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe    1792-1822

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in Field Place, West Sussex, England and was educated at Oxford, but was expelled because of his pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism (1811). Together, Shelley and Harriet Westbrook, moved to Scotland and were married. In 1813, Shelley published Queen Mab and later developed a relationship with William Godwin´s daughter, Mary. After the committed suicide of his wife, Shelley married Mary Godwin in 1816, and together they raised a family. In 1818, the family moved to Italy and they journeyed throughout the country. It is during this time that Shelley met Lord Byron and also produced some of his greatest work . These included odes, lyrics, and verse dramas, notably Prometheus Unbound (1818-1819). Shelley drowned in the Bay of Spezia at the age of 30.

Wolfe, Charles    1791-1823

Charles Wolfe was born in Dublin where he later studied at Trinity College. Most of Wolfe´s success came with his poem The Burial of Sir John Moore which was published anonymously in 1817. Wolfe died at age 34.

Keats, John    1795-1821

John Keats was born in London and was later educated at Enfield. His education brought him to a job as an apprentice for a surgeon and afterward a dresser and a junior house surgeon. On the side, Keats began writing poetry and published his first book, Poems, in 1817. Failure soon followed this book until 1819 when Keats began writing some of his best poetry. That year harvested Lamia, The Eve of St. Agnes, and two versions of Hyperion. Success didn´t last to long because Keats was ordered to Rome due to tuberculosis. Before his death at the age of 25, Keats was coughing up blood and he had also been stopped from committing suicide.

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