Book Description
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What though, for showing truth to flatter'd state Kind Hunt was shut in prison, yet has he, In his immortal spirit, been as free As the sky-searching lark, and as elate. Minion of grandeur! think you he did wait? ... Read more

Book Description
This is the father and the almost universal source, whether acknowledged or not, of all subsequent biographies of that heroic personality so inaptly referred to as 'poor Keats.' Richard Monckton Milnes, who afterwards became Lord Houghton, was only a boy of eleven when Keats died and did not frequent the same circles as the poet, but when he was on a visit to Walter Savage Landor, Houghton met with Charles Browne, who had been an intimate friend of Keats in his Hampstead days. Mr Browne had, himself, planned a biography of Keats but abandoned it when he determined to emigrate to New Zealand. His accumulated material he handed over to Houghton, but the latter spent eight years collecting further material, documentary and by the way of personal recollections and eye-witnesses, and the book, as it finally appeared, is substantially a portrait of Keats as he appeared to his contemporaries, authenticated by a large collection of the poet's original letters and literary notes,. The present edition has a note on the letters by Lewis Gibbs. ... Read more

Book Description

For many years one of the most serious needs in the literary world has been for a definitive edition of the letters of Keats. Now one of the world's foremost Keats authorities, Hyder Edward Rollins of Harvard, has prepared a completely new edition of all the extant letters, with an extensive listing of the letters presumed missing.

With impeccable scholarship and total faithfulness to the originals, Professor Rollins here is able to redate and rearrange sixty of the letters. Through full documentation for each letter, understanding of the content is considerably amplified both through the correction of errors, and through application of the results of the editor's life-long study of Keats and his work. In addition to many letters from Keats' relatives and friends, the present work includes seven letters or other documents signed or written by Keats that appear in no English edition, and also new texts of seven other letters by the poet. Furthermore, all the letters known only in Woodhouse's transcripts and in Jeffrey's transcripts are here printed for the first time exactly as Woodhouse and Jeffrey copied them.

The letters of Joseph Severn describing the last illness and death of Keats are given in their entirety. These letters are invaluable historically and biographically, and are also exceptionally good reading.

Customer Reviews (1)

The Letters of John Keats is worth reading in its entirety!
I've been searching for this out of print series for years.I was thrilled to receive it and to delve into the life of Keats once more.Be careful however, when ordering the two-volume set.Because you are technically ordering one item, you'll likely receive only the first volume.In my case, I received the first volume twice, and now I have none, because I have to send them back because there are no second volume mates for them at this time.This is not yet documented.Nonetheless, if
your order gets straightened out (crossing fingers), this is a unique collection and worth every word on the page.Happy hunting!I'll definitely continue my search.You may want to opt for a more recent compiled version to avoid this problem.In any case, once you get your hands on the book, it is incredible. ... Read more

Book Description
All 64 sonnets of one of the greatest English poets, John Keats, are collected here, from the first, which he wrote at age 18, to the last, written just five years later. Presented with an introduction and explanatory notes, the sonnets combine sensuous imagery with an eager voice full of passionate yearning. Keats's strongest feelings and his refined appreciation of nature and the rich world of his imagination find words and fulfillment in the abiding form of the sonnet. Some of the sonnets are written in play, some in seriousness; in some he experiments with form; and in others he is completely free within the form. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Each poem is accompanied by a commentary
With an informative introduction by Edward Hirsh, this edition of John Keats' The 64 Sonnets will well serve to introduce a new generation of readers to the poetic genius of John Keats. It would also be an excellent replacement for shelf worn copies in personal, academic, and public library collections. Each poem is accompanied by a commentary providing context and background information on the sonnet. Nature withheld Cassandra in the Skies: Nature withheld Cassandra in the skies/For meet adornment a full thousand years;/She took their cream of beauty, fairest dyes,/And shaped and tinted her above all peers./Love meanwhile held her dearly with his wings,/And underneath their shadow charm'd her eyes/To such a richness, that the cloudy kings/Of high Olympus utter'd slavish sighs./When I beheld her on the earth descend,/My heart began to burn--and only pains,/They were my pleasures,/ they my sad life's end;/Love pour'd her beauty into my warm veins.
... Read more

Book Description
Keats stands as a prophetic prelude to many of today's radical attempts at self- and cultural-transformation. But this side of Keats is rarely recognized. He is remembered mainly as a Romantic poet whose stature was magnified by his early death. Eclipsed by the lush sensuality of his poems, the real meaning of his life and the true greatness of his poetic achievement - how we make sense of our experience - has been largely misunderstood.

"Book of the Heart" grasps the core of Keats's poetic practice of life. It uncovers the path of knowledge that his letters reveal. In a moving and imaginative literary achievement, Rodríguez presents Keats as a hero of the heart, whose deep experience of life directed him in a unique way toward love, suffering, death, and creativity.

"Book of the Heart" is part of the "Studies in Imagination" series from Lindisfarne Books. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An Exploration of the Real Keates
Andres Rodriguez is clearly very passionate about Literature and the influence Keates had upon his own generation and those that would follow. This book reviews and examines not only the poems of Keates but what could be argued to be even more important in the understanding of the man, his letters. The very mention of John Keates conjures up images of everything related to the "Romantics," however, Rodriguez successfully pays tribute to Keates "the author" instead of Keates as a member of the "Romantic Period." This book would be interesting to both avid fans of Keates and those who are taking their first approach in studying the genius.

A memorable and illuminating book
This is a memorable and illuminating book, making accessible to the general reader the treasures to be found in Keats's letters as well as his poetry.One of the remarkable things about this book is its emphasis on Keats's understanding of the healing powers of imagination and of poetry.Many, many years ago, my favorite English teacher told me that she hoped to write a book about Keats's letters.I remember wondering how a book about anyone's letters could be interesting, and hoped someday to see her book.She never wrote it, alas-- so it was a wonderful discovery to find in Andres Rodriguez's book some of the depths that my long-ago mentor had hoped to plumb. Don't be fooled by the negative review titled "fooled again"-- this is an unusual and beautiful book.

Fooled Again
I purchased this book based on the editorial reviews.
Well, I've been fooled again and again by glowing MOVIE reviews, but this is a first for me in literature. This is a badly written book. My one star recommendation is for you to purchase the book (it is inexpensive) to make your own judgment. ... Read more

Product Description
'What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth' So wrote the Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) in 1817. This collection contains all of his poetry: the early work, which is often undervalued even today, the poems on which his reputation rests including the Odes and the two versions of the uncompleted epic Hyperion, and work which only came to light after his death including his attempts at drama and comic verse. It all demonstrates the extent to which he tested his own dictum throughout his short creative life. That life spanned one of the most remarkable periods in English history in the aftermath of the French Revolution and this collection, with its detailed introductions and notes, aims to place the poems very much in their context. The collection is ample proof that Keats deservedly achieved his wish to 'be among the English Poets after my death' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Definitive Edition
There is simply no better edition of Keats in existence. However, if you are coming to Keats for the first time you'll be better off with an edition containing substantive annotations; Stillinger's notes are virtually all on textual matters (the Oxford Authors edition edited by Elizabeth Cook is a fine choice). The text established by Stillinger is unlikely to be surpassed for years to come. If you want an edition of Keats's complete poetic output in a reliable scholarly text, then this is the edition for you. For the Keats aficionado, this book is a godsend. ... Read more

Book Description
'Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a soul?'Keats's letters have long been regarded as an extraordinary record of poetic development and sout-making.They represent one of the most sustained reflections on the poet's art we have from any of the major English poets.Yet quite apart from the light they throw on the poetry, they are great works of literature in their own right. Written with gusto and occasionally painful candour, they show a powerful intelligence struggling to come to terms with its own mortality.Sometimes bitterly jealous in love and socially and financially insecure, at others playful and confident of his own greatness, Keats interweaves his personal plight with the history of a Britain emerging from the long years of the Napoleonic Wars into a world of political unrest, profound social change, and commercial expansion.This selection of 170 letters, written between 1816 and 1820, includes a new introduction and notes by Jon Mee explaining both the personal and political contexts that brought them to life. ... Read more

Book Description

From the introduction by Philip Levine:

Book Description
This authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode.It brings together a unique combination of Keats's poetry and prose - all the major poems, complemented by a generous selection of Keats's letters - to give the essence of his work and thinking.In his tragically short life Keats wrote an astonishing number of superb poems; his stature as one of the foremost poets of the Romantic movement remains unassailable.This volume contains all the poetry published during his lifetime, including Endymion in its entirety, the Odes, 'Lamia', and both versions of 'Hyperion'.The poetry is presented in chronological sequence, illustrating the staggering speed with which Keats's work matured.Further insight into his creative process is given by reproducing, in their original form, a number of poems that were published posthumously.Keats's letters are admired almost as much as his poetry and were described by T. S. Eliot as 'certainly the most notable and most important ever written by any English poet'.They provide the best biographical detail available and shed invaluable light on Keats's poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"Arise, good youth, for sacred Phoebus' sake..."
This review is of -John Keats: The Major Works-,
edited by Elizabeth Cook (Oxford World's Classics)
ISBN: 0192840630, 2001, 667 pp.
There are now 3 major editions of the complete poems
of John Keats.Each of them has its own excellencies.
There is the -John Keats: Complete Poems-, edited by
Jack Stillinger (Belknap Press, Harvard) ISBN: 0674154312,
-John Keats: The Complete Poems-, edited by John Barnard
(Penguin Classics) ISBN: 0140422102, and also this
present volume, edited by Elizabeth Cook, ISBN: 0192840630.
A fact which both John Barnard and Elizabeth Cook point out
as editors is their debt, as well as the debt of all Keats
scholars, to Jack Stillinger.As she says in her "Note on
the Text": "In deciding which source text to use I am deeply
indebted to Jack Stillinger who in -The Text of Keats's
Poems- (1974) and in his subsequent edition of Keats's
-Poems- (1978) presents his informed and considered arguments
for and against each transcript and state of text.Prior
to his work editors had frequently created Keats's poems
from a patchwork of different source texts."
The glories of this Oxford Classics edition are the
same as with many of their editions, the fine "Introduction",
the wondrous notes to the poems (pp. 557 - 641), an excellent
selection of "Further Readings", Glossary of Classical
Names, Index of Keats's Correspondents (with much helpful
background information about them), and an Index of Poem
Titles and First Lines.In this volume, there are also
Appendix I, "St. Agnes' Eve" as found in George Keats's
manuscript, and Appendix II, "La Belle Dame sans Mercy",
as printed in the -Indicator-, 10 May 1820.Some editors
and Keats lovers feel the changes that Keats made to
the latter poem to publish in the -Indicator- mar the
wondrous tone and atmosphere, so they print the first
version.
In her "Introduction," Elizabeth Cook stresses several
important aspects of Keats's psyche and his reverences
toward other authors (Spenser and Milton, in particular).
From the side of the aspect of his psyche, she states:
"Keats conceived of history as a process of *actualizing*
the world's sum total of what is knowable and thinkable.
In Stoic fashion he postulates a finite quantity of
world-stuff of which Milton has used up an unfairly
large portion, therby depleting not only his contemporaries,
but posterity [later writers] as well.
* * * He writes with the assumption that a certain quota
of qualities, capacities, and experiences is allotted to
each individual."In relating of Keats's sensitivity,
sense of dedication, and love, she says: "In June 1818,
when one brother, Tom, was dying of tuberculosis and
the other, George, planning to sail with his new bride
for America, Keats wrote to his friend Bailey, 'My Love
for my Brothers from the early loss of our parents and
even for earlier Misfortunes has grown into a affection
"passing the Love of Women"."This was a section of
verse from the Old Testament regarding the love of
Jonathan, King Saul's son, and David, the exiled,
hunted song singer, which Herman Melville was also
attracted to.
The formatting in this edition is very readable,
the font is medium, not small, the layout of the
pages is uncrowded and accessible, so that even with
the longer poems one is not presented with a complicated
task by smaller type.
The excellence of this Oxford edition is the inclusion
of 87 (!) of Keats's letters to various correspondents
(pp. 348 - 543), as well as the prose pieces, "When
Alexandre the Conquerore was wayfayring" (which according
to the Notes was "Composed probably late 1815 while Keats
was a student at Guy's [Hospital].The only source for
this fragment is Walter Cooper Dendy, -The Philosophy of
Mystery- (London, 1841), pp. 99-100 where it is quoted at
the end of a chapter on the pathology of 'Poetic Phantasy
or Frenzy."The other prose pieces are "Keat's Marginalia
to the Shakespeare Folio", "Keats's Marginalia to Milton's
-Paradise Lost-", a piece on "Mr. Kean" [the actor], and
the "Rejected Preface to -Endymion-." Keats's letters are
a very valuable source of information of his views on
poetry as a craft and an avocation, as well as providing
commentary on his times.
The only caution with these large-size Oxford Major
Works is that one should be very careful not to crease
the outside binding, as the pages if not sufficiently
glued, might tend to come apart. Otherwise the Oxford
Classics editons, and this one in particular, are
treasured resources of fine works as well as extremely
helpful scholarship.
-- Robert Kilgore. ... Read more

Book Description

The letters of John Keats are, T. S. Eliot remarked, "what letters ought to be; the fine things come in unexpectedly, neither introduced nor shown out, but between trifle and trifle." This new edition, which features four rediscovered letters, three of which are being published here for the first time, affords readers the pleasure of the poet's "trifles" as well as the surprise of his most famous ideas emerging unpredictably.

Unlike other editions, this selection includes letters to Keats and among his friends, lending greater perspective to an epistolary portrait of the poet. It also offers a revealing look at his "posthumous existence," the period of Keats's illness in Italy, painstakingly recorded in a series of moving letters by Keats's deathbed companion, Joseph Severn. Other letters by Dr. James Clark, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Richard Woodhouse--omitted from other selections of Keats's letters--offer valuable additional testimony concerning Keats the man.

Edited for greater readability, with annotations reduced and punctuation and spelling judiciously modernized, this selection recreates the spontaneity with which these letters were originally written.

Book Description

The life of Keats provides a unique opportunity for the study of literary greatness and of what permits or encourages its development. Its interest is deeply human and moral, in the most capacious sense of the words. In this authoritative biography--the first full-length life of Keats in almost forty years--the man and the poet are portrayed with rare insight and sympathy. In spite of a scarcity of factual data for his early years, the materials for Keats's life are nevertheless unusually full. Since most of his early poetry has survived, his artistic development can be observed more closely than is possible with most writers; and there are times during the period of his greatest creativity when his personal as well as his artistic life can be followed week by week.

The development of Keats's poetic craftsmanship proceeds simultaneously with the steady growth of qualities of mind and character. Mr. Bate has been concerned to show the organic relationship between the poet's art and his larger, more broadly humane development. Keats's great personal appeal--his spontaneity, vigor, playfulness, and affection--are movingly recreated; at the same time, his valiant attempt to solve the problem faced by all modern poets when they attempt to achieve originality and amplitude in the presence of their great artistic heritage is perceptively presented.

In discussing this matter, Mr. Bate says, "The pressure of this anxiety and the variety of reactions to it constitute one of the great unexplored factors in the history of the arts since 1750. And in no major poet, near the beginning of the modern era, is this problem met more directly than it is in Keats. The way in which Keats was somehow able, after the age of twenty-two, to confront this dilemma, and to transcend it, has fascinated every major poet who has used the English language since Keats's death and also every major critic since the Victorian era."

Mr. Bate has availed himself of all new biographical materials, published and unpublished, and has used them selectively and without ostentation, concentrating on the things that were meaningful to Keats. Similarly, his discussions of the poetry are not buried beneath the controversies of previous critics. He approaches the poems freshly and directly, showing their relation to Keats's experience and emotions, to premises and values already explored in the biographical narrative. The result is a book of many dimensions, not a restricted critical or biographical study but a fully integrated whole.

Customer Reviews (2)

A Stimulating Biography
I have not read this book yet in its entirety, but I dont want to let the foregoing review be the only word on the subject here--I am sorry that reviewer found it "heavy going," I'll testify that I found the thinking in the two chapters I did read, 13 and 16, to be absolutely gripping and provocative, more than enough to cause me to order my own copy of the book.My sense of this work's importance is that of Mr. Tillotson's.

Pretty heavy going
I read this book because it won a Pulitzer Prize, and because I so greatly enjoyed the biographies of Keats by Aileen Ward and by RobertGittings.But I found much of this book tough going.The study of some of the longerpoems simply did not interest me.But the account of Keats' last year isvery well-done and absorbing. ... Read more

Book Description
When old age shall this generation waste,Thou shalt remain, in the midst of other woeThan ours, a friend to man to whom thou say'st"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"-that is allYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.Bloomsbury Poetry Classics are selections from the work of some of our greatest poets. The series is aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist and carries no critical or explanatory apparatus. This can be found elsewhere. In the series the poems introduce themselves, on an uncluttered page and in a format that is both attractive and convenient. The selections have been made by the distinguished poet, critic, and biographer Ian Hamilton. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An Excellent Collection - See Alternatives Also
There are many good collections of the poetry of John Keats. This selection by John Barnard is quite good and has long served as a text for college classes.

Barnard writes that the poetry of John Keats is uniformly serious and always poetic. Keats' prime concern was art and beauty. The casual reader may not even notice certain passages that resulted in severe political criticism by the Tory press and other supporters of Charles II.

The real popularity of this particular collection is the poetry of Keats himself. Barnard has assembled an excellent collection, one that is fully representative of Keats' remarkable genius. He largely avoided the longer poems of John Keats with the exception of Endymion in which he offers Book 1 in its entirety, but only extracts from Books 2, 3, and 4. Nonetheless, this abridged version of Endymion still exceeds 2000 lines.

Looking for alternative collections?John Barnard has also compiled John Keats, The Complete Poems. It was also published by Penguin Classics. It is about 750 pages, more than three times as long as Selected Poems. For example, the full Endymion is some 50 pages longer than the abridged version in Selected Poems. Barnard's explanatory notes in this collection are quite extensive, totaling nearly 200 pages in reduced print size. There is also a wide ranging appendix exceeding 50 pages, including selected letters of John Keats.

Another good choice is published by Modern Library. Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats is actually a very good choice and is indeed my favorite. The introduction by John Hirsch is more than 25 pages and is quite helpful. I particularly like the explanatory notes by Jim Pollock. They are less extensive than those in Barnard's The Complete Poems, but I found them most useful.

Very Well written and Literely Breath taking.
I loved this book. It is truly a classic. Keats is long before my time, however his work that he left behind is still here and leaves a big mark on the world of poets. Wanting to be a journalist myself, and having a hungerfor literature, Keats' book was quite inspiring. I recommend it for anypoet. One of my favorites is, of course, "When I have fears that I mayCease To Be." ... Read more

Book Description
Neither purely biography nor purely criticism, this book is an attempt to understand the essence of Keats by surveying the evolution of his inward life as revealed in his poems and letters during the four years of his poetic career. ... Read more

Book Description
John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley belong to the second generation of Romantic poets. The Romantics focused on themselves and nature, as opposed to society and universal and general ideas. These two greats helped define and shape the movement. ... Read more

Book Description

'I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death,' John Keats soberly prophesied in 1818 as he started writing the blankverse epic Hyperion. Today he endures as the archetypal Romantic genius who explored the limits of the imagination and celebrated the pleasures of the senses but suffered a tragic early death. Edmund Wilson counted him as 'one of the half dozen greatest English writers,' and T. S. Eliot has paid tribute to the Shakespearean quality of Keats's greatness. Indeed, his work has survived better than that of any of his contemporaries the devaluation of Romantic poetry that began early in this century. This Modern Library edition contains all of Keats's magnificent verse: 'Lamia,' 'Isabella,' and 'The Eve of St. Agnes'; his sonnets and odes; the allegorical romance Endymion; and the five-act poetic tragedy Otho the Great. Presented as well are the famous posthumous and fugitive poems, including the fragmentary 'The Eve of Saint Mark' and the great 'La Belle Dame sans Merci,' perhaps the most distinguished literary ballad in the language. 'No one else in English poetry, save Shakespeare, has in expression quite the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perception of loveliness,' said Matthew Arnold. 'In the faculty of naturalistic interpretation, in what we call natural magic, he ranks with Shakespeare.' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Incredible
Pertaining to Keats himself, I could scarcely lavish enough praise upon his poetry. I must confess an extreme partiality to the High Romantics (Blake, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, etc.), and, among them, Keats vies with Wordsworth for the best verse.

Many of his poems are quite famous--if you have studied only a little poetry, you likely have passing familiarity with his great odes (especially the sublime "To Autumn," "To a Nightingale," and the wonderful, deep "On a Grecian Urn") or with his strangely dark "La Belle Dame sans Merci." If you have studied poetry and none of these poems even rings a bell, well... you have been missing out! Take this brief snippet of a stanza from his "Ode on a Grecian Urn":

"...
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st
`Beauty is truth, truth beauty, --that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'"

The odes are not his only great poems, of course; I daresay almost every poem in this volume is invaluable. They are, however, his most famous lyrics, and for good reason!

Some, critic/poet T.S. Eliot, for example, detest the Romantics**. Eliotian criticism for the first half of last century dismissed them frequently, and tried to deny their lyrical power and the influence of Romanticism on all poetry thereafter. I will admit that among the Romantics, there are some who are often weak: Lord Byron, for example, ranges from marvelous to quite tawdry, and I can't say I'm an overly enthusiastic fan of Shelley. Keats, however, who lived only to be twenty-five, suffers none of the faults of his more fortunate contemporaries. He is deeper than any save Blake, and his only rival in lyrical beauty (an intentionally vague term...) I have yet read is Wordsworth.

Anyone who loves poems, who has a reverence for life and a wonder for its mysteries and sorrows, anyone who is enthralled with the power of a well-turned phrase or well-craft lyric; anyone of such a nature with fall in love with John Keats.

[**: I must note, upon reading the hidden appendix of criticism on Keats pointed out by the wonderful review above, that Eliot is not critical of Keats. Among the Romantics, he seems to regard Keats fairly highly; I know for a fact, however, that this is not the case with most other Romantic poets]

Excellent For College Study or Independent Reading
In his short life John Keats created some of the finest poetry in the English language.I have read his shorter poems and odes many times, not for study, but simply for enjoyment. I am not a Keats expert, but I can now easily recognize quotations from Keat's odes, sonnets, and other poems. I especially like "The Eve of St. Agnes", a story of romance and danger in a medieval setting that illustrates Keats' remarkable command of language.

Keats is not difficult, but footnotes help with archaic words and references to more obscure Greek mythology. I prefer to read Keats unaided, then read the footnotes (best if tucked away in an appendix), and then return and read the poem again. For longer poems I jump to footnotes more quickly.

Initially, the inexpensive Dover edition "Lyric Poems", was exactly what I needed.Later, as I tackled longer poetry like "Endymion", I migrated to more complete collections with commentary and footnotes.

Keats" works are widely available in hardcover and paperback. Which collection is best for college study or independent reading? I have two favorites, one by Penguin Classics and the other by Modern Library. Both are available in softcovers.

The first is "The Complete Poems" by Penguin Classics, edited by John Bernard and a standard choice for college classes. I have the second edition, 1977. Barnard's extensive footnotes and commentary are quite good and offset his somewhat brief introduction. Additionally, the appendix discusses textual variations in Keats' manuscripts and has a useful guide to Greek mythology names. The third edition, 1988, adds 20 pages of selected letters, Keats' notes on Milton's Paradise Lost, and his notes on a Shakespearean actor.

The second choice (my favorite) is the newly published "Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats", Modern Library 2001 edition (not the earlier 1994 hardcover version).Apparently as a directchallenge to Penguin Classics, this edition offers a longer introduction (22 pages) by Edward Hirsch and excellent footnotes (not too many, nor too few) by John Pollock. Also, as the title implies, it has selected letters by Keats, some 25 pages in total. Somewhat hidden in the appendix is commentary by six well-known literary critics such as T. S. Eliot, Mathew Arnold, and Keats' biographer Walter Jackson Bate. Lastly, the font is larger and more crisp in the Modern Library version (but is still quite acceptable in the Penguin edition).

Overall, I prefer Hirsch to Barnard, but both are good choices. Both are 5-stars. ... Read more

Book Description
Written in a fraction over four years, 1816 to 1820, the large body of Keats's letters forms the most complete portrait we have of any English poet.With extraordinary candour and self-knowledge Keats gives us his experience of almost everything that can happen to a young man between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-five; an all but day-to-day account of the working processes of a poet; and finally as Robert Gittings says, `some of the most profound comments on art, philosophy, and the human condition that any single person has produced'. Robert Gittings has selected 170 letters, each printed in full, with invaluable explanatory notes, and an Appendix containing new readings and textual discoveries based on his own study of the manuscripts. ... Read more