MACMILLAN Re-evaluating the Literary Coterie, 1580–1830: From Sidney to Blackwood's

This book is about the literary and friendship networks that were active in Britain for a 250 year period. Patterns in the nature of literary social circles emerge: they may centre upon a location, like Christ Church, or a person, like Aaron Hill; they may suffer stress when private relationships become public knowledge, as Caroline Lamb’s Glenarvon shows; and they may model themselves on a preceding age, as the relationship between the Sidney circle and Lady Mary Wroth exemplifies. Despite these similarities, no two coteries are the same. The circles this volume examines even differ in their acceptance of their own status as a coterie: someone like Constance Fowler was certainly part of a strict familial coterie; the Scriberlians were a more informal set who were also members of other groups; and although Byron’s years of fame are regularly associated with Holland House, he often denied being of their party. With an Afterword by Helen Hackett Review   Review   Review   From the Back Cover This book is about the literary and friendship networks that were active in Britain for a 250- year period. Patterns in the nature of literary social circles emerge: they may centre upon a location, like Christ Church, or a person, like Aaron Hill; they may suffer stress when private relationships become public knowledge, as Caroline Lamb’s Glenarvon shows; and they may model themselves on a preceding age, as the relationship between the Sidney circle and Lady Mary Wroth exemplifies. Despite these similarities, no two coteries are the same. The circles this volume examines even differ in their acceptance of their own status as a coterie: someone like Constance Fowler was certainly part of a strict familial coterie; the Scriberlians were a more informal set who were also members of other groups; and although Byron’s years of fame are regularly associated with Holland House, he often denied being of their party. About the Author Will Bowers is Junior Research Fellow in English at the University of Oxford, UK. His research interests include Romantic poetry; the idea of a cosmopolitan London; the trial of Queen Caroline; and English perceptions of Italy and Italians. He has published on these topics in international journals and is an assistant editor on the 'Longman Annotated English Poets' edition of The Poems of Shelley. Hannah Leah Crummé is Head of Special Collections at Watzek Library, Lewis and Clark College, USA. Her research focuses on the political impact of the Sidney-Herbert-Dudley network. She has published broadly across her field and curated the exhibition ‘By me William Shakespeare’, which recently opened in Somerset House, London, UK.