The Spirit of Place in Keats

About this book

It has been said that we know the recesses of Shakespeare's mind by the power of emotion he injected into his writing. As we think of Keats, the same phenomenon seems to have occurred. The clearness of his mental portrait is due to the brilliance of his mind and the fact that we have an almost complete disclosure of his thoughts in the poems and letters. While interpretations of known facts may differ, new facts about Keats are hard to come by. This book, however, is the first to describe the Old Mill House at Bedhampton and to verify it, by research, as the house where Keats wrote The Eve of St Agnes and spent his last night in England. It also makes more understandable Fanny Brawne's relationship with the poet. It gives a clear reading of his life and enables us to know better what Keats was really like.