Philip James Bailey, Festus: An Epic Poem

by Philip James Bailey, Mischa Willett (Editor)

Overview

Philip James Bailey’s Festus was an artistic sensation in the Victorian period, a best-seller across the Anglophone world and broadly influential on other writers. This edition marks the first time it has been published in over 100 years, featuring the poem’s first lineation and a contextualization of its scientific and theological imagery. Scholars and students will benefit from a general introduction to Bailey’s life and work with a thematic guide to the poem that made him famous and appendices containing illustrations from period lithography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474457811
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	11/25/2021
Series:	Edinburgh Critical Editions of Nineteenth-Century Texts
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Philip James Bailey was an English Spasmodic poet, best known as the author of Festus.

Mischa Willett is Assistant Professor in English at Seattle Pacific University. A specialist in nineteenth-century aesthetics, Romantic poetry, and the Spasmodic movement, he writes essays, reviews, and original poetry as well. His newest books are The Elegy Beta (Mockingbird, 2020) and Phases (Cascade Books, 2017). More information can be found at www.mischawillett.com

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Bailey's Life and Career

Early Reception and Influence: British and American

Orientation to Critical Topics

Further Reading

A Note on the Text

Works

Festus: a Poem (1845 American Edition)

Dedication (1838)

Proem

Scenes 1-35

L'Envoi; Appendices

1. Contemporary Critical Responses

2. Illustrations

Editorial Reviews

Scholars of nineteenth-century culture will want to thank Mischa Willett for this beautifully curated critical edition of Philip James Bailey's Festus. Seldom read today, Festus was devoured by Victorian readers from all walks of life and was reverenced in literary circles. Willett's thoughtful introduction unfolds for us the magnificent strangeness, as well as the abiding interest of this remarkable work.

Charles LaPorte