Selected Political Writings of John Thelwall
Editors: Robert Lamb and Corinna Wagner
The Pickering Masters
978 1 85196 928 9: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
John Thelwall was a pivotal figure in British radical circles during the Romantic era. He was one of the London Corresponding Society’s most prominent orators and was tried for high treason along with Thomas Hardy and John Horne Tooke in 1794. After his acquittal, Thelwall resumed his radical activities, giving electrifying public lectures on parliamentary reform and universal suffrage at Beaufort Buildings in London. He remained under close government surveillance and became a dangerous acquaintance. When he visited Coleridge and Wordsworth in Alfoxden his trip was investigated and the Wordsworths lost their lease.
This four-volume reset edition brings together Thelwall’s most important and influential political writing from across the genres, from scientific pamphlets and writings on the art of elocution, to political philosophy and journalism. The selections reveal his debt to several discursive traditions: classical republicanism and civic humanism; the historicized sociology of the Scottish Enlightenment; radicalized Lockean natural rights theory; and the emerging language of utility. Most of these difficult-to-access texts have never been republished in modern editions.
The edition benefits from extensive new editorial material including a general introduction, bibliography, chronology, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index. It has a broad interdisciplinary appeal and will be used by historians, literature scholars and political theorists.
- Focuses on the political writings of an influential and well-connected Romantic figure
- Most of the texts included have never been republished
- New editorial material includes a general introduction, bibliography, chronology, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index
Contents
Volume I: Early Political Pamphlets and Lectures, 1793-1796
An Essay Towards a Definition of Animal Vitality (1793); Political Lectures (No. 1): On the Moral Tendency of a System of Spies and Informers (1794); Political Lectures (No. 2): Sketches of the History of Prosecutions for Political Opinion (1794); Citizen Thelwall, Fraternity and Unanimity to the Friends of Freedom (1795); A Warning Voice to the Violent of All Parties (1795); A Particular Account of the Late Outrages at Lynn and Wisbeach (1796); Prospectus of a Course of Lectures, to Be Delivered Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, in Strict Conformity with the Restrictions of Mr. Pitt’s Convention Act (1796); An Appeal to Popular Opinion Against Kidnapping and Murder, Including a Narrative of the Late Atrocious Proceedings at Yarmouth (1796); Strike! But Hear (1796)
Volume II: Selections from The Tribune, 1795-6
Selected Writings from The Tribune (1795-6)
Volume III: Journalism and Selected Writings on Elocution and Oratory, 1797-1809
‘The Phenomenon of the Wye, during the winter of 1797-8’, Monthly Magazine (1798); ‘A Pedestrian Excursion through Several Parts of England and Wales during the Summer of 1797’, Monthly Magazine (1799-1801); ‘J Thelwall’s Justification’, Monthly Magazine (1802); Elocution and Oratory: General Plan and Outline of Mr. Thelwall’s Course of Lectures (1803); ‘A Letter to Francis Jeffray [sic], Esq., on Certain Calumnies and Misrepresentations’, The Edinburgh Review (1804); ‘Mr Thelwall’s Reply to the Calumnies, Misrepresentations, and Literary Forgeries, Contained in the Anonymous Observations on His Letter to the Editor’, The Edinburgh Review (1804); ‘Mr Thelwall and Mr Gough on the Voice, Monthly Magazine (1804); Introductory Discourse on the Nature of Objects of Elocutionary Science (1805); ‘Letter to the Editor’, Medical and Physical Journal (1805); ‘Historical and Oratorical Society at Mr. Thelwall’s Institution’, Monthly Magazine (1809); Selected writings from Monthly Magazine (1800)
Volume IV: Late Journalism and Writing on Elocution and Oratory, 1810-1826
A Letter to Henry Cline, Esq., on Imperfect Development of the Faculties (1810); ‘Critique of Erasmus Darwin’, Monthly Magazine (1825); ‘Essays on Elocution’, Panoramic Miscellany (1826); Selected writings from The Champion (1818–21)
Related titles
- John Thelwall: Radical Romantic and Acquitted Felon
- London Corresponding Society, 1792–1799
- The Novels and Selected Plays of Thomas Holcroft
- Trials for Treason and Sedition, 1792–1794