This Companion, designed as an authoritative biographical and critical guide to Burns, is in six sections. Part I places Burns in context with a Chronology, 'The Burns Circle' and a Topography. Part II looks at the Burnsian issues of religion, politics, philosophy, drink, drama and sex. Part III an essay on Burns as a poetic phenomenon, is sure to provoke debate about the relevance of Burns to his time and ours. Part IV examines twenty-five poems, eighteen verse epistles and twenty-six songs as well as commenting on the letters, political ballads and Common Place Books. A Select Bibliography (Part V) and four Appendixes (Part VI) are followed by a glossary of Scots words, and index of poems and a general index.

Part of the "Literary Movements" series, this title examines the people, events, and works that defined the literary Romantic era in Great Britain and Ireland from 1775 through the 1830s. An introductory essay summarizes the movement's origins and philosophy. This A-to-Z-format work provides brief biographies, plot summaries, and critical interpretations of both the popular, well-known Romantics and the many often-overlooked, lesser-known writers. Designed to "whet the reader's appetite" for further exploration of this fascinating period and to focus on how closely Romantic writers are connected to their contemporary world, the book offers signed essays on industrialism, the monarchy, the American and French Revolutions, childhood, slavery, and many other topics. Many articles offer suggestions for further reading. Comparing this title to Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850, edited by C. J. Murray (CH, Jun'04, 41-5628), reveals that the newer volume includes more close analysis of individual works and features a larger number of lesser-known writers, particularly women. Rather than being a substitute, it is best used in conjunction with the Murray title. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. General Readers; Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty; Professionals/Practitioners. Reviewed by R. B. Meeker.

Originally published in 1992 by Mainstream Publishing Company (Edinburgh) Ltd.

No writer is more charismatic than Robert Burns and no biographer has captured his energy, brilliance and radicalism as well as Robert Crawford does in The Bard. To his international admirers Burns was a genius, a hero, a warm-hearted friend; yet to the mother of one of his lovers he was a wastrel, to a fellow poet he was 'sprung...from raking of dung', and to his political enemies a 'traitor'. Drawing on a surprising variety of untapped sources - from rediscovered poetry by Burns to manuscript journals, correspondence, interviews and oratory by his contemporaries - this new biography presents the remarkable life, loves and struggles of the great poet. With a poet's insight and a shrewd sense of human drama, Robert Crawford outlines how Burns combined a childhood steeped in the peasant song-culture of rural Scotland with a consummate linguistic artistry to become not only the world's most popular love poet but also the controversial master poet of modern democracy. Written with accessible élan and nuanced attention to Burns's poems and letters, The Bard is the story of an extraordinary man fighting to maintain a sly sense of integrity in the face of overwhelming pressures. This incisive, intelligent biography startlingly demonstrates why the life and work of Scotland's greatest poet still compels the attention of the world a quarter of a millennium after his birth.