Since its first publication in February 1897 Herford’s The Age of Wordsworth has remained and continues to remain a basic book on European Romanticism in general and the English Romanticism in particular. The second edition was printed in the same year a few months later, in November 1897, and the third edition (revised) was brought out in the year 1899. Since then the book has been reprinted many times, and that is a standing testimony to the immense popularity and usefulness of the book. In the Preface to the first edition Herford wrote in December 1895, about a year before the actual publication of the book: “The task of presenting this vast and complex literature with some semblance of order and unity has been no light one.” But the enormous popularity of the book for over a century is a glowing testimony to his remarkable success in performing the arduous task he had set upon himself. His analysis of Romanticism, which is the organizing conception of this book is as sharp as it is illuminating and offers a clear idea of the various phases of European Romanticism, a movement that swept over Europe from roughly the middle of the eighteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century. What deserves special mention is the fact that all along Herford assiduously maintains the distinction between literary history and biography. While the book is indispensable for any student of English literature, the students of the History of Thought and Culture Studies will also find this luminous book delightfully readable and interesting.

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