BOOK REVIEWS & RECOMENDATIONS
I love books. I have an extensive library and read voraciously. Years ago I started reviewing books for Amazon. I stopped doing that because I realized I was feeding a machine that was undermining local booksellers and compromising a way of life. My practice today is to almost exclusively buy books through local bookstores. If I read a review of a book I like or someone recommends something interesting, I email the title to the owner of my local book shop, Jessica's Book Nook, and he orders it for me. I pay a little more for a book - but believe me it is worth it.
The goal of this section is to direct people interested in Shelley and his circle to books of interest. I will try to review as many of them as I can, but in other instances I may simply point you to books of outstanding importance that fall into the category of essential reading.
The Story of The Mask of Anarchy, from Shelley to the Triangle Factory Fire
I have a treat in store for members of the Shelley Nation. Michael Demson’s book, Masks of Anarchy tells the story of two political radicals and the poem that brought them together: Percy Shelley and the early 20th Century union organizer he inspired, Pauline Newman. Demson, in collaboration with illustrator Summer McClinton, accomplishes this through an unusual medium: a radical comic. This gets my RPBS "Stamp of Champ, You Must Read This" recommendation! You can get the eBook for about $14 CDN and the paperback for $8. This is an unbelievable bargain. Just DO IT!
Shelley's Revolutionary Year - a review by Ciarán O'Rourke
In May of 1820, Percy Byshe Shelley, who was living at Pisa at the time, in Italy, wrote two letters to his friend Leigh Hunt. In the letter Shelley asked if Hunt knew if “any bookseller would like to publish a little volume of popular songs, wholy political, and destined to awaken and direct the imagination of reformers.“ Hunt declined to publish the collection and what a loss it was. In 1990, 170 years later, Paul Foot and Redwoods books set out to right the wrong by collecting together those works which they thought Shelley most likely would have included in the collection. It’s been 30 years since this collection was published. And now, I assume in honour of the 200th anniversary of Peterloo, Redwoods is republishing this collection. The new edition has been updated and we are now treated to an afterword by the brilliant Irish Shelley scholar Paul O’Brien. Ciarán O’Rourke is a brilliant young poet and Marxist from Ireland. He is the founder and editor of the online archive Island's Edge Poetry which features interviews with contemporary Irish poets about their work and craft. His first collection, The Buried Breath, is available from Irish Pages Press. He is based in Dublin, Ireland. Read his review of the new edition here!
Will Britain Make It? The "Mask of Anarchy" is Timelier than Ever
Professor John Mullan analyses how Shelley transformed his political passion, and a personal grudge, into poetry.
Keats’ Annotated Copy of Paradise Lost is Now Online!!
Most of my focus at The Real Percy Bysshe Shelley is on Percy Shelley’s poetry and prose - and his radical politics in particular. But every now and then, it is important to draw attention to other poets in his circle; particularly those whom he admired. So today I want draw everyone’s attention to the recent digital publication of Keats’ two volume copy of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
What if Shelley Didn't Drown?
This novel by the brilliant American poet and novelist Elinor Wylie imagines that instead of drowning, Shelley was rescued and taken to America where he lived out his life.
Mark Andresen and the Pan Review
Mark Andresen is a long time follower of this blog and also the creator of his own. The Pan Review is a delightfully eclectic and articulate review of issues current in the arts and literary scene. He regularly features author interviews. A recent Mary Shelley-themed issue, for example, featured an interview with the sculptor Bryan Moore (who will soon unveil his bronze bust of Mary Shelley at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle), Mark's review of Fiona Sampson's disappointingly adversarial biography of Mary Shelley and an interview with yours truly in which I answered questions about how Shelley came into my life and what I think is important about him.
Shelley: Poet and Revolutionary by Jacqueline Mulhallen
I have been meaning to recommend Percy Bysshe Shelley Poet and Revolutionary by Jacqueline Mulhallen to the Shelley Nation for a long, long time. I kept putting it off because I wanted to do the book full justice - I think it is THAT important. I can put it off no longer. Connecting modern audiences with Shelley's radical politics and philosophy is actually urgent. As no less a person than Nicholas Roe (Professor of English Literature at the University of St Andrews) says: Mulhallen's book is "Fresh, clear and compelling, this is the best compact account of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s revolutionary life currently available."
Eleanor Marx Speaks!!! The Revolutionary Percy Shelley
"We claim him as a Socialist." With these words Eleanor Marx concluded her 1888 address on the politics of Percy Bysshe Shelley. I strongly recommend this essay to those who want to understand the Real Percy Bysshe Shelley. Marx offers a perceptive, shrewd analysis of the political philosophy that underpinned Shelley's thought. And she offered it in 1888 at a time when English society was doing its level best to wipe out all memory of Shelley's radicalism. This happened almost exactly at the time referred to in Paul Foot's speech which you can read here.
Tempest in a Teapot! How Dare Mary and Percy Use Pet Names!!
"What Should We Do to Resist Trump" by Sandy Grant. Comment by Graham Henderson
As the famous French proverb says, "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose": the more things change the more they stay the same. This oft repeated truism seems to have real relevance in 2017. If Shelley was to drop in on us today, I think what would most surprise him would not be rockets and computers, but rather that in two hundred years so little has changed. Wealth is, if any thing, more concentrated in the hands of the few. We are a priest-ridden society and authoritarian regimes are not in recession, they are advancing. Entire civilizations are dominated by theocracies. That should be a sobering message to all of us. What progress we make is wrung from the entrenched power-brokers at great cost and can just as easily be snatched away. Sandy Grant is not wrong: we must resist, protest and create with others the possibilities of change. We must harness our emotions for the eternal struggle. Oh, and we must read Shelley!
"Google, democracy and the Truth about Internet Search" by Carole Cadwalladr
This is the first in Cadwalladr's series on the corruption of the internet by bad actors - with advertising dollars lying at the root of the problem. I wonder what those early internet pioneers would say if we went back in time and told then that the internet architecture they were designing would lead to a future in which an advertising company with was THE big winner. Jaron Lanier once told me that they would have laughed in our face. what has happened is a mistake, as Astra Taylor has pointed out, the internet was supposed to be the "people's platform" - and it has been stolen from us. Our democracy is at risk as well, as techno-utopian libertarian models which would give Ayn Rand a wet dream proliferate.
"Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound and the Opera Buffa" by Jessica Quillin
The realization that operatic motifs and styles influenced not just the design of the poem, but its content is, well, breathtaking. I hope it will encourage opera fans to add Shelley not just to their artistic vocabulary but perhaps even their repertoire. Jessica's article is longish but thrilling. So you need the following tools to read it: glass of whiskey, cheese plate, logs on the fire and Don Giovanni on the stereo (plus optional cats or dogs curled up nearby). Got it? Good. Now get to it, Shelley Nation.