Collected Works of James Beattie

Important in the history of the Scottish Enlightenment and eighteenth-century literature and thought, James Beattie was a figure of high reputation and influence in a variety of fields.

Although undoubtedly a key personality of the time, there has never previously been a complete edition of Beattie's works.

This collection of Beattie's works in prose and verse brings together for the first time his many-sided contributions, and allows an appraisal of his considerable achievements.

His view on literary criticism and belles-lettres, at times anticipating the ideas of the Romantics, appear in the Essays on Poetry and Music and Dissertations Moral and Critical .

His contribution to philosophical debate is represented by The Essay on Truth .

The set also includes Forbes' Life of Beattie . Beattie's most enduring influence was arguably his poetry, with The Minstrel powerfully affecting Wordsworth and the Romantics.

His most important poems are reproduced here in the form in which they were known in the late Eighteenth Century.

The final miscellaneous volume collects, for the first time, rare items which illuminate Beattie's character and the wide range of his interests.