Algernon Charles Swinburne: unofficial laureate

Algernon Charles Swinburne, dramatist, novelist and critic, was late Victorian England's unofficial Poet Laureate.

Swinburne was admired by his contemporaries for his technical brilliance, his facility with classical and medieval forms and his courage in expressing his sensual, erotic imagination.

He was one of the most important Victorian poets, the founding figure for British aestheticism, and the dominant influence for fin-de-siècle and many modernist poets.

This collection of eleven essays by leading international scholars offers a thorough revaluation of this fascinating and complex figure.