This book is a collection of thirteen essays, some previously unpublished, on Byron and Wordsworth. Drawing on psychoanalysis, textual criticism, and historical scholarship, Manning explores the territory jointly mapped by the works that compel our attention and the theories by which we explain our engagement. Juxtaposing Byron and Wordsworth, Manning examines the situation of literature in the Romantic period and the interaction between the idea of originality the Romantics fostered and the means of production through which they expressed themselves.