Romantics on the Web

Blake would have loved the World Wide Web, with its easy combination of text and graphics, its ready accessibility, and its anarchic disposition.  That may be why there are so many good Web sites devoted to his life and works.  But Romanticism in general is well served on the Web (though, as usual, one has to be careful in assessing the quality of any particular Web page).  The sites below provide good starting points for an exploration.

General Indexes and Thematic Guides

The Voice of the Shuttle--Romantics page http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2750


The Voice of the Shuttle is a massive analytical index for scholarly Websites of all kinds. This section of it is devoted to British Romanticism and is subdivided into "General Resources," "Authors, Works, Projects," "Selected Topics," "Course Syllabi & Teaching Resources," "Criticism & Critics," "Journals & Series," "Listservs & Newsgroups," "Conferences & Calls for Papers," and "Post-Romanticism." A basic and extremely important resource.
 

Literary Resources--Romantic http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/romantic.html

Many links to resources on Romantic figures.
 

Romantic Links http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Romantic/


Many more links, including links to the Home pages of many Romantic scholars (including Duncan Wu).
 

Romantic Chronology http://www.qub.ac.uk/en/shuttle/rom-chrono/chrono_text.htm


"Hypertext chronology of literary, social, and historical events in Britain and France from 1785-1851; includes links to online resources for authors, works, and topics."
 

A Romantic Natural History http://www.dickinson.edu/~nicholsa/Romnat/romnat1.htm


"A website designed to survey the relationships between literary works and natural history in the century before Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859)." Sections include "Why a Romantic Natural History?" "Backgrounds: From Aristotle to Erasmus Darwin," "Toward a Romantic Natural History," "Natural Historians," "Literary Figures," "Artists and Illustrators," "Topics in Romantic Natural History," and "Bibliography."
 

British Women Romantic Poets, 1789-1832 http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/English/BWRP/index.htm


A collection of texts from the Shields Library at UC-Davis, this site includes books by twenty-nine women, including Letitia Barbauld and Felicia Hemans. Texts are in both SGML and HTML formats.
 

Women of the Romantic Period http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~worp/


"This interactive hypertext uses Richard Polwhele's poem 'The Unsex'd Females' to introduce students and scholars alike to some of the British Romantic Period's foremost female contributors. In his poem, Polwhele invokes the rigid standard of feminine behavior held by many members of eighteenth-century society as he asserts that a certain breed of women -- the unsex'd females -- transgressed the limits of that which was acceptable. Since Polwhele addresses these women by name in 'The Unsex'd Females,' the poem provides a means of examining closely some of the many female figures often excluded from the traditional British Romantic Period canon." The hypertext of "The Unsex'd Females" contains links to works by the women Polwhele names.
 

Sites Devoted to Single Authors

The William Blake Archive http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/blake/

A truly extraordinary resource for the study of Blake, presently (July, 1999) consisting of 33 copies of 18 separate books, including at least one copy of every one of Blake's works in illuminated printing except the 100 plates of Jerusalem (forthcoming).
 

Byron Home Page  http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/Byron.html

The Home page of the Byron Usenet discussion list, with instructions for joining and a brief introduction to the topic currently under discussion.
 

The Byron Society  http://www.raindog.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/byronsoc/

Here you can find details about activities organised by the society, and also subscription details should you wish to join. You can also find details about The Byron Journal, the Society's annual publication which promotes the scholarly appreciation of Byron's life and works.
 

Byronmania  http://www.byronmania.com/index.html

"A Website of fact and fiction about George Gordon Lord Byron 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale the real original Regency Romantic hero in boots, tight pants and many caped coat--bisexual athlete--revolutionary--philosopher--poet."
 

Byron Chronology http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/byronchronology/index.html

 

The Samuel Taylor Coleridge Archive http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/stc.html


Created by Margorie A. Tiefert for the University of Virginia's Hypertext Archive of British Romantic Poetry, this site includes hypertexts of all Coleridge's poetry; excerpts from the Biographia Literaria and The Friend, other criticism, political commentary, philosophy, and letters; a time line, recommended reading, a dictionary (for help reading), and links to other Coleridge sites.
 

The Coleridge Companion: An Introduction to the Major Poems and the Biographia Literaria, by John Spencer Hill http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/honr212-01w02/lyricalballads/comp4a.htm

The text of a complete scholarly monograph posted as a Web site, beautifully illustrated and fully annotated. Includes a useful biographical sketch of the poet and chapters on "The Conversation Poems," "Kubla Khan," "The Ancient Mariner," "Dejection: An Ode," and the Biographia Literaria.
 

Felicia Hemans http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hemans/biography.html


A brief biography and discussion of Hemans and the texts of many poems?part of Mary Mark Ockerbloomís extensive "Celebration of Women Writers" site.

Shelley Chronology http://www.rc.umd.edu/cstahmer/shelcron/

The Keats-Shelley House, Rome http://www.keats-shelley-house.org/

"Welcome to the web site of the Keats-Shelley House, Rome. Situated on the Spanish steps, the house is part of Roman Folklore. For generations the Piazza di Spagna has been visited by architects, painters, musicians and poets who all lodged here. Tobias Smollet, George Eliot, Goethe, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, the Brownings, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde and Joyce were just a few of the many who were attracted and inspired by the celebrated 'centro storico'." Short discussions of the lives and works of Keats, Shelley, and Byron, especially as they relate to the House.

Wordsworth Variorum Archive http://www.oxy.edu/~jgarrett/wva/

"The Wordsworth Variorum Archive is (or will be) an electronic collection of the poetry of William Wordsworth. This collection will include all of the published versions of all of the poetry arranged by published volume. The text used will be that of first editions, and will not be emended except in cases of egregious printer's error."

Dorothy Wordsworth and the Romantic Sensibility  http://omega.cc.umb.edu/~fayeng/dwords.html

Excerpts from her journals.