The Second Person from Porlock

Dennis Hamley

From Shelf: Fiction

London, 1824. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a washed-up opium addict whose grip on reality is slipping. In a Cambridge college library, a bullied undergraduate finds a strange annotation in a book of Coleridge's poems. Across the sea, a young Sicilian discovers that his mother once had a liaison with Coleridge. It isn't long before their paths cross.

Highgate, London, 1824. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a washed-up opium addict, estranged from his friends and from his neglected wife. His grip on reality is starting to slip; his past and present mingle in laudanum-induced dreams. In a Cambridge college library, Scrivener, a bullied undergraduate, finds a strange annotation in a book of Coleridge's poems. Intrigued by this mystery marginalia and captivated by Romantic poetry, he resolves to become a poet himself, with Coleridge as his guiding light. Across the sea, Samuel, a young Sicilian, discovers that his mother once had a liaison with Coleridge. He sets out for England to learn all he can about the man who may be his father. It isn't long before Samuele and Scrivener cross paths - but will their journeys take them to the real Samuel Taylor Coleridge?

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