Coleridge and the Geometric Idiom
Walking with Euclid
Published on 16. March 2023
Book
Hardback
216 pages
978-1-009-27175-2 (ISBN)
Description
When Coleridge described the landscapes he passed through while scrambling among the fells, mountains, and valleys of Britain, he did something unprecedented in Romantic writing: to capture what emerged before his eyes, he enlisted a geometric idiom. Immersed in a culture still beholden to Euclid's Elements and schooled by those who subscribed to its principles, he valued geometry both for its pragmatic function and for its role as a conduit to abstract thought. Indeed, his geometric training would often structure his observations on religion, aesthetics, politics, and philosophy. For Coleridge, however, this perspective never competed with his sensitivity to the organic nature of his surroundings but, rather, intermingled with it. Situating Coleridge's remarkable ways of seeing within the history and teaching of mathematics and alongside the eighteenth century's budding interest in non-Euclidean geometry, Ann Colley illuminates the richness of the culture of walking and the surprising potential of landscape writing.
Reviews / Votes
'Given how young many of the Romantics were when they first started demonstrating remarkable language and thinking skills, it seems a wise move for scholars to investigate their education in school and university, and to consider the poets' experiences following immediately upon leaving these institutions in their critical studies. Colley's book is a fine addition to this field of study.' Catherine Ross, The Coleridge Bulletin 'An excellent monograph on the cartographic and geometrical idiom in Coleridge's work ... taut and focused ... Colley pays scrupulous attention to the several crescents and plunging lines with which Coleridge sought to render the various inclines and sudden drops with which he came into bodily contact. ' Ewan Jones, The Review of English Studies 'Colley ... manages to keep her focus sharp, making it a fast and fun read - a notable achievement for a book on poetry and geometry ... filled with lifetimes of reading, imagination, and wisdom ... genuinely reset[s] our understanding of Romantic-era writers' engagement with mathematics and their philosophical outlooks based on that engagement.' Aaron Ottinger, The Wordsworth CircleMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-27175-2 (9781009271752)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
08/2025
Cambridge University Press
€28.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
03/2023
Cambridge University Press
€105.99
Available for download
Person
Ann C. Colley is SUNY Distinguished Professor Emerita at the State University College at Buffalo, New York. She has taught in Ukraine and Poland as a Fulbright Senior Scholar and is a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. She has written extensively on nineteenth-century British literature and culture.
Content
1. Coleridge walks: the measure of the landscape; 2. Lines of motion; 3. A geometric frame of mind; 4. Ars Poetica; 5. Youth and age: Coleridge and the shifting paradigm of geometric thought.