John Clare and the Imagination of the Reader

This broad and original study of the full range of John Clare's work is the first to take seriously his repeated appeals to the judgement of future readers. Restoring the suppressed history of Clare's deep cultural engagement, it teases out, in clear terms, the often unexpected complexities of his varied writings. A series of close readings reveals Clare's sophisticated poetics: his covert quotations, his careful analysis of the history and culture of his own place, and his fascination with literary success and posthumous fame.

PAUL CHIRICO is Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century and Romantic Literature at the University of York, UK, and has published many articles on John Clare. A former chair of the John Clare Society, he is leading a major project to establish Clare's birthplace as a cultural, educational and environmental centre.