ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the year 1816. In April 1816, Coleridge became a permanent resident in Highgate, the guest and patient of Dr James Gillman. The move was another attempt to escape the ‘detested Poison’ of opium and though not completely successful, it did bring his intake under better control. Before 1816, Coleridge’s most recently published books were a reprint of his Poems in 1803, a reprint of The Friend in 1812 and copies of Remorse in 1813. Political hostility to Coleridge underlies all of the novels. Thomas Love Peacock’s versions of Coleridge pinpoint the weaknesses of his arguments. They do so, however, without descending into the personal attacks of William Hazlitt or the Edinburgh. His critiques, though not based on personal knowledge, are exact as well as witty.
