ABSTRACT
Wordsworth, The Excursion (1814); review by Francis Jeffrey, Edinburgh Review, XXIV (Nov. 1814), 1–30. The editorial independence of the journal can be judged by the fact that Longmans, Wordsworth’s publisher, was also the London distributor of the Edinburgh Review. Notice that, in his fierce attack, Jeffrey commends (pp. 25–27) those passages in which Wordsworth advocates the social reforms that were central to the Edinburgh’s program. Jeffrey reveals his attitude toward literary reviewing — and his essential contempt for literature — on page 29, the last paragraph.
