Private Lives of the Ancient Mariner

(2013)
A non fiction book by Molly Lefebure

A fascinating new study of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Private Lives of the Ancient Mariner illuminates the poet's deeply troubled personality and stormy personal life through a highly original study of his relationships. In her last published work the celebrated Coleridgean, Molly Lefebure, provides profound psychological insights into Coleridge through a meticulous study of his domestic life, drawing upon a vast and unique body of knowledge gained from a lifetime's study of the poet, and making skilful use of the letters, poems and biographies of the man himself and his family and friends.
The author traces the roots of Coleridge's unarguably dysfunctional personality from his earliest childhood; his position as his mother's favoured child, the loss of this status with the death of his father, and removal to the 'Bluecoat' school in London. Coleridge's narcissistic depression, flamboyance, and cold-hearted, often cruel, rejection of his family and of loving attachments in general are examined in close detail. The author also explores Coleridge's careers in journalism and politics as well as poetry, in his early, heady 'jacobin' days, and later at the heart of the British wartime establishment at Malta. In both of these arenas Coleridge exerted his talents to brilliant effect, although they have often been overlooked in appraisals of his works. His virtual abandonment of his children and tragic disintegration under the influence of opium are included in the broad sweep of the book which also encompasses an examination of the lives of Coleridge's children, upon whom the manipulations of the father left their destructive mark.
Molly Lefebure unravels the enigma that is Coleridge with consummate skill in a book which will bring huge enjoyment to any reader with an interest in the poet's life and times.

Table of Contents

Prologue - The Children of Genius Lose Their Fountain of Light
I Funeral at Highgate
II A time to lament
III The chilled heart

Part One - Resurrection
IV Beware, Beware
V Offensive disclosures
VI Better not look this way

First Landing Place - From Under the Tablecloth

Part Two - Sam
VII Little Sam
VIII The Torrents of Spring
IX Jesus man, including In pursuit of Tippoo Sahib, Francis Coleridge
X Jesus man continued
XI The pantisocrats
XII A chilled heart and a democratic marriage

Part Three - Taper in a Cottage Window
XIII Sermons and sedition and a father's kiss
XIV A seraph in clouts
XV The cradle

Second Landing Place - Crossroads

Part Four - A Mystic Peregrination
XVI A mystic peregrination - (I): Father as alchemical philosopher
XVII A mystic peregrination - (II): Beyond the grasp of reason
XVIII A mystic peregrination - (III) Father as mariner: The way ahead

Part Five - Trailing Clouds of Glory
XIX In which Papa goes to Germany and Berkeley goes to Heaven
XX The Vale of Elysium
XXI A Faery Voyager and a fine representative baby
XXII Darkness at noon
XXIII Sensibility and sense

Part Six - Samuel Taylor Coleridge V Napoleon Bonaparte
XXIV In pursuit of Tipoo Sahib - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
XXV Our man in Malta
XXVI Our man in Malta (Contd)
XXVII Confrontations

Part Seven - Confrontations
XXVIII And further confrontations
XXIX Ejuxria (Pg 306 - 316)
XXX News from the Aunt Hill concluding with some intimations
XXXI A case of unatural cruelty
XXXII Further news from the Aunt Hill

Part Eight - Locked Out Children
XXXIII A month at Brighton! Portrait of an excluded daughter
XXXIV A sunny stroll in Ambleside - Portrait of locked out sons

Part Nine - Shipwreck of the Faery Voyager
XXXV Shipwreck of the Faery Voyager

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