Geoffrey Matthews's essay on Shelley succeeds that of Stephen Spender No. 29. This is the first of a selected number of titles published in the early years of the series which are now receiving a new treatment.

Shelley's poetry, like his life, has often been the subject of sharp controversy. Mr Matthews describes some of these fluctuations of critical opinion and discusses the charge of elusiveness which has sometimes been levelled against the poetry. He makes the point that Shelley's language requires careful study if the symbolic vocabulary he so often used is to be properly understood, and in tracing the relationship between the life and the work, he emphasizes the more objective qualities of Shelley's poetry, its variety and craftsmanship.

Mr Matthews taught in Finland and at Leeds, and was Reader in English Literature in the University of Reading. He edited Shelley's Selected Poems and Prose (1964), the Keats volume in the Critical Heritage series, and a complete edition of Shelley's poems in Longman's Annotated English Poets series.