This volume contains one of the fullest, and certainly the most accurately edited, collections of Shelley s poetry and prose available. All the texts have been re-edited from primary sources especially for this edition. Included in the selection are four early poems from The Esdaile Notebook; Queen Mab, Alastor, Mont Blanc, and Hymn to Intellectual Beauty ; Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, Julian and Maddalo, Prometheus Unbound The Sensitive-Plant, The Cenci, Peter Bell the Third Letter to Maria Gisborne, The Witch of Atlas, Epipsychidion, Adonais, Hellas and The Triumph of Life (all complete), as well as such important shorter poems as Ozymandias, Ode to Liberty, Ode to the West Wind, The Cloud, To a Sky-Lark, and the late lyrics to Jane Williams. There are also selections from Laon and Cyntha (The Revolt of Islam). Prose pieces included are A Defence of Poetry, On Life and On Love. All the poems and prose pieces have been thoroughly annotated, with unusual diction defined and with all biographical, historical, geographical, and literary allusions identified (many of them for the first time anywhere). To further assist the student and teacher, fifteen essays are included representing the best of scholarship and criticism on Shelley s poetry. Among them are several general studies that illuminate the historical, philosophical, symbolic, and mythic approaches to the poet s work; a number of other essays assist the reader s entry into specific poems. The critics represented are Kenneth Neill Cameron, C. E. Pulos, Earl R. Wasserman, Donald H. Reiman, Evan K. Gibson, Charles H. Vivian, M. H. Abrams, D. J. Hughes, Irene H. Chayes, Carlos Baker, Ross Woodman, Carl Woodring, and G. M. Matthews. A Selected Bibliography and an Index of Titles and First Lines are also included. About the series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.