Coleridge and European Literature

Abstract

This article examines the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in relation to European literature. Coleridge was a literary enthusiast throughout his life, gobbling up a diverse diet of reading from various European traditions. He was committed to the task of translation as well as to the critical appraisal of the English literature of his time. The article attempts to explain the ways in which these apparently opposing aspects of his literary enthusiasm grew together and remained fundamental to one another, while also pointing to the most important connections to European literature within Coleridge's oeuvre.