Author Description

Mark Akenside (1720-1770) has in recent years increasingly come to be recognized as one of the most important and original poets writing in the decades after the death of Pope. The growing appreciation of his achievement was accelerated by the 1996 publication of Robin Dix's edition of his poetical works, and by a volume of critical essays by various authors, Mark Akenside: A Reassessment, in 2000. Now, in the first book-length study devoted exclusively to his writing since C. T. Houpt's 1944 critical biography, Robin Dix examines the full range of Akenside's literary achievements. The rich intellectual and poetic background to his work that this detailed treatment reveals, permits important new insights into the nature of his originality, and of originality in general. Dix's critical analysis is supplemented by the first full edition of Akenside's non-medical prose.