In William Wordsworth: A Literary Life, John Williams provides an absorbing account of the evolution of the poet's literary career. An invaluable introduction to Wordsworth and English Romanticism, the book also challenges a number of commonly-held assumptions.

At the outset, Williams disputes the claim made by some recent critics that Wordsworth's early years were relatively carefree, and he goes on to assess the difficulties that beset him as a young poet with radical political sympathies attempting to publish his work during the turbulent years of the 1790s and early 1800s.

Wordsworth's increasingly ambivalent attitude towards seeking out a public readership beyond his immediate circle of friends and admirers is a central concern of the book, as is the pervasively autobiographical nature of the poetry he wrote. Fresh insights are offered on both the early Hawkshead years, and on the nature of Wordsworth's shifting political allegiances, leading to a reappraisal of the later poetry so frequently ignored by critics on the grounds of its inferiority.

While not disputing the fact that Wordsworth's poetical powers diminished after 1820, Williams seeks to reinstate the later work as an important, rewarding and worthwhile field of study.