Elinor Wylie, The Orphan Angel, My Father's Library
Graham Henderson
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.

What if Shelley Didn't Drown?
Book Reviews, Poet and Revolutionary, Mulhallen
Graham Henderson
Shelley: Poet and Revolutionary by Jacqueline ...

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."

Shelley: Poet and Revolutionary by Jacqueline Mulhallen
Michael Demson, Masks of Anarchy, Book Reviews
Graham Henderson
The Story of The Mask of Anarchy, from Shelley ...

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!

The Story of The Mask of Anarchy, from Shelley to the Triangle Factory Fire
Book Reviews, A Treacherous Likeness, Lynn Shepherd
Graham Henderson
A Trecherous Likeness, by Lynn Shepherd

Novels which take as their subject the life of Percy Bysshe Shelley are few and far between. Lynn Shepherd’s compelling, elegant novel, A Treacherous Likeness, should be on the “must read” list of every person with even a remote interest in the lives of Percy and Mary - I loved every second of it. I have given this novel the RPBS Stamp of a Champ"!!! Order it through your local bookshop!

A Trecherous Likeness, by Lynn Shepherd
Jessica Quillin, Music and Opera
Graham Henderson
Shelley's Musical Muse

Shelley and the Musico-Poetics of Romanticism explores Shelley’s near lifelong fascination with music and the role it played in the creation of his poetry and his theory of the imagination. As an independent scholar anxious to bring Shelley to the attention of a larger audience, books such as this are an important tool because they can connect Shelley to people who come from very divergent walks of life.

Shelley's Musical Muse

Mary Beard

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Elizabeth Rawson - "Cicero; A Portrait"

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Elizabeth Rawson - "Cicero; A Portrait"

I wish I could find a simple way to convince people to read about one of my heroes, Marcus Tullius Cicero.  Today he seems so remote.  However a very great deal of our modern world (our laws, our language our philosophy) is founded upon his thinking. And for those of you interested in Shelley, he is actually extremely important.  Shelley was very familiar with his writings and said of him, "Cicero is, in my estimation, one of the most admirable characters in the world." Much of the underpinning for Shelley's skepticism is derived from his reading of Cicero; whose philosophical dialogues are cited in his letters as a "favourite".  The "Tuscan Disputations" were an extremely important source for aspects of "Prometheus Unbound". If you want to know Shelley, you must understand Cicero.

 

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