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Byron and the Forms of Thought is a major new study of Byron as a poet and thinker. While informed by recent work on Byron’s philosophical contexts, the book questions attempts to describe Byron as a philosopher of a particular kind. It approaches Byron, rather, as a writer fascinated by the different ways of thinking philosophy and poetry are taken to represent. After an Introduction that explores Byron’s reception as a thinker, the book moves to a new reading of Byron’s scepticism, arguing for a close proximity, in Byron’s thought, between epistemology and poetics. This is explored through readings of Byron’s efforts both as a philosophical poet and writer of critical prose. The conclusions reached form the basis of an extended reading of Don Juan as a critical narrative that investigates connections between visionary and political consciousness. What emerges is a deeply thoughtful poet intrigued and exercised by the possibilities of literary form. An Open Access edition of this work is available on the OAPEN Library.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Title Page, Copyright
  2. pp. i-iv
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  1. Contents
  2. p. v
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  1. Abbreviations
  2. p. vi
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  1. Preface
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-12
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  1. Part I: Philosophy
  1. I ‘I doubt if doubt itself be doubting’: Scepticism, System and Poetry
  2. pp. 15-42
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  1. II A ‘Voice from out the Wilderness’: Cain and Philosophical Poetry
  2. pp. 43-72
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  1. Part 2: Poetics
  1. III The Need for ‘all this’: Johnson, Bowles and the Forms of Prose
  2. pp. 75-103
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  1. IV ‘I wish to do as much by Poesy’: Amidst a Byronic Poetics
  2. pp. 104-128
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  1. Part 3: Outlines
  1. V The Flower and the Gem: Narrative Form and the Traces of Eden
  2. pp. 131-145
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  1. VI ‘Glory’s dream Unriddled’: Politics and the Forms of War
  2. pp. 146-173
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  1. Coda: 'In short'
  2. pp. 174-180
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  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 181-190
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 191-196
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