http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/351062840

Thomas Chatterton and romantic culture

Thomas Chatterton wrote poetry, forged medieval manuscripts, and died in tragic and mysterious circumstances - either adolescent suicide or accidental drug overdose. He left reams of original poetry, and a vast and complex archive of medieval works supposedly discovered in a Bristol church. The debate about the authenticity of these 'Rowley' papers was a pivotal episode in the history of eighteenth-century letters that ultimately established Chatterton as the herald of Romanticism and an inspiration for later poets. And yet there has been almost no critical work on this extraordinary and influential writer. This book restores Chatterton as a seminal figure in English literature. It is a major collection of diverse new essays by writers, biographers, critics, and scholars, showing the mercurial Chatterton in new contexts, perpetually challenging the genres of writing: ultimately mixing history, fiction, and myth in a great post-Enlightenment reinvention of the past. As Peter Ackroyd says in his foreword, Thomas Chatterton is 'the one great genius of historical restoration and renewal in this country'.

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