Felicia Hemans is a rising star in the field of Romantic literature, now regarded as equal in significance to any of her more famous male contemporaries. And here is the ideal way to read her: through Susan Wolfson's breathtaking selection of poetry and other source materials. This is the fruit of many years hard labour, but it is presented in an accessible, readable fashion. Full marks to Wolfson on this achievement: an absolutely essential book for anyone interested in Hemans or ROmantic literature.

Felicia Hemans was the second most popular British poet of the nineteenth century (behind only Byron); it is crucial that her work be read and examined in order to understand our literary history. Hemans's poems are heartfelt and insightful, often focusing on the difficulties and rewards of womanhood but also grappling with loss, politics, and the natural world as did her male contemporaries. Along with the more general reader of poetry, instructors of British literature should give this text serious consideration. The poems are accessible and complicated.

This is a must-read for anyone interested in nineteenth-century British poetry. Felicia Hemans has been neglected for all too long, for she was the second most popular poet of the nineteenth-century in England--ahead of the likes of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Tennyson. Her poetry supported herself and her sons. Scholars are just beginning to tap this rich source of literary history and discuss what Hemans' work means to our notions of Romanticism and Victorianism. Forthcoming from Broadview Press is a volume of her selected poems, and a volume of critical essays on Hemans is in progress. For now, this hardback volume is the best available introduction to Hemans work, especially her lyric poems that address the place of women in culture