Mary Robinson and the Genesis of Romanticism: Literary Dialogues and Debts, 1784û1821

Originally coming to prominence as an actress and scandalous celebrity, Mary Robinson created an identity for herself as a poet and novelist of the Romantic school. Through a series of literary dialogues with established writers - including Hannah Cowley, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Charlotte Smith, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft - Robinson put herself at the centre of Romantic literary culture as observer, participant and creator. Cross argues that Robinson's dialogues shaped the nature of Romantic verse and went on to influence second-generation Romantics such as Christina Rossetti and Alfred Lord Tennyson.