With a novelist's insight and eye for detail A. S. Byatt examines the relationship between Wordsworth and Coleridge, against the background of the great changes of their times -- in society, politics, education and literature. As she charts their personal lives, traces thegrowth of their ideas and shows how these are reflected in their work, we are presented with vivid pictures, not only of Wordsworth and Coleridge, but of their families, friends and contempories -- Southey, de Quincey, Lamb, Hazlitt, Byron and Keats.