Biographia Literaria

Part memoir, part literary criticism, part philosophy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1817 book resists easy summary, which is part of its lasting appeal. He traces his own growth as a poet and thinker, settles old scores with fashionable philosophies, and works toward his famous distinction between imagination and fancy, treating imagination as a living, shaping power rather than a passive mirror. Along the way he offers a close and generous reading of Wordsworth’s poetry, defending some of it and questioning the rest, and coins the phrase ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ that critics still use. Digressive and at times maddening, the work helped define English Romantic theory. This free PDF and EPUB edition makes Coleridge’s central statement on criticism available to students and general readers alike.