Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)An artful liar, and, almost certainly, a fine translator of Faust.
It cannot be denied that Coleridgean authorship of the 1821 Boosey Faustus _can_ be denied. However, the Coleridgean claim is more than a hypothesis---it is a working theory: the editors have proven the validity of their hypotheses through careful and compelling (if not, for everyone, convincing) evidence, both stylistic evidence and stylometric evidence. It is worth noting that both editors are accomplished and respected Coleridge scholars, and that Oxford press is not known for publishing "hypothesis."
If the strongest claim skeptics can make against Coleridge's authorship is that he himself denied it, then they have not nearly matched Burwick and McCusick's scholarly rigor. The editors have fully addressed this concern and explained why Coleridge might have been inclined to deny his role as translator. And let us not forget that Coleridge had a penchant for stretching the truth--hence my calling him an artful liar. Perhaps the man from Porlock was the real translator?
Romanticist scholars well-schooled in the true friendship of opposition can certainly handle a healthy and disinterested debate. The burden now falls upon the anti-Coleridge-authorship crowd to rebut the Burwick/McKusick claim with commensurate authority. Simply not liking the idea isn't enough.
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