poetry is made.' J. C. C. Mays, University College, Dublin
'This is a subtle and erudite meditation on Coleridge's poetry, making frequently brilliant connections with his notebooks, essays, and letters. The theme of the 'transnatural' running throughout Coleridge's work (what we might also call the pagan, the transgressive, or the subversive erotic) is explored with zest and confidence, most particularly so in the ballads. Altogether this is an excellent academic study, fully alive to previous Coleridge criticism, but not afraid to strike out on its own, and even to adventure into mysterious and forbidden territory, the 'far countree' of Coleridge's imagination.' Richard Holmes, biographer of Coleridge and author of The Age of Wonder
"Leadbetter's book offers us a new way into Coleridge, presenting a writer and thinker who repeatedly found his truest genius in the experiences that made him most uneasy. It is a compelling and encompassing account of a powerfully heterodoxical mind. Leadbetter has penetrating things to say across the whole range of the great career.' Seamus Perry, Balliol College, Oxford
