Softback. White cover with an etching of two figures writing on the front board and title on the spine.

F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feel and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

Dorothy’s journals are rich in domestic detail, giving wonderful insights into life in the early 1800s. She loved the countryside and nature, vividly describing what she has seen on her many walks. Her journals are filled with often poignant stories of friends (including Coleridge), neighbours, and the many people who are passing through the Grasmere area – beggars, discharged sailors, people en route to the Manchester mills

This is a must read for anybody who is a devotee of William Wordsworth as Dorothy’s collected journals are beautifully presented with accompanying, explanatory notes of all names mentioned and with a spectacularly helpful timeline at the front which presents not only the major events in her, and her brother’s literary life, but also those taking place in European history and literary history.

We gain insights into her daily life and the common concerns which became William’s as well as her intense concerns for her brother and those in his circle.

The diary has some telling insights into people, nature, travellers, beggars, tourists and the ever-burgeoning disparity between the rich and the poor which displeased Dorothy as much as William.

One can also find startling moments of poetic, lyrical, intense beauty in her observations from which William borrowed for the shaping of his verse.

This is yet another true classic from Oxford World Classics whose collections are unrivalled both in terms of their production values (well bound, printed, and thickness of pages) but notably for the brilliant supplementary information and prefaces that accompany their texts.