The Grasmere Journals

This new edition of perhaps the best-loved of all journals is based on a fresh examination of the original manuscripts. There is an enormously expanded commentary full of new information on every aspect of the people, places and books mentioned. The journal is intimately and vividly written and still a compelling read. Dorothy Wordsworth began it in 1800 to give her poet-brother pleasure, and for three years she noted the walks and weathers, the friends, the country neighbours, the beggars on the Grasmere roads. The Journal has many stories: of Wordsworth's marriage, of the concern the Wordsworths felt for Coleridge, and of the composition of poetry. It is an excellent source of information about Wordsworth, his circle and methods of writing. This new edition yields new readings of mis-read or undeciphered words, and restores Dorothy's hasty punctuation. It brings us closer to her as a writer than ever before: her first thoughts, her crossings-out, her after-thoughts, the hurried flow of her expression.