Published in ten volumes, The Penguin History of Literature is a critical survey of English and American literature. Volume 5, The Romantic Period, is comprised of twelve independent essays authored by distinguished academics. These detailed, thought-provoking essays will appeal primarily to upper level students in history and English literature. David B. Pirie edited this collection as well as contributing the interesting essay on John Keats.

Seven chapters address the works of influential literary figures including Jane Austen, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. Scholarly, detailed, semi-biographical essays do assume substantial familiarity with their poetry, prose and letters. However, the persistent reader is rewarded with a greater insight into the interplay of politics and literature during this turbulent period of English history.

Five more general chapters are devoted to analyzing political and social change.

Książka jest w bardzo dobrym stanie biorąc pod uwagę rok wydania tj. 1994.