"An outsize, gorgeous book, replete with paintings and drawings--landscapes, houses, portraits--contemporaneous with the poem. At last we have a worthy visual counterpart to one of the timeless monuments of English verse."--The Wall Street Journal

The Prelude, William Wordsworth's masterful autobiographical work, composed in blank verse, is one of the great poems in the English language. In this fully illustrated and annotated edition, the poem receives the treatment its readers deserve.

The poem charts the development of the author's mind, from childhood to Cambridge, London, the Alps, and France, touching on subjects ranging from leisure to literature, nature to imagination, and everything in between. A meditation on the self, this work still stands as a masterpiece of English literature, and is here complemented and enhanced by 200 contemporary color plates that both illuminate and elucidate the text.

Scrupulously selected and edited from the definitive manuscripts in existence, the marginal notes and glosses provide an extra touch that makes this a truly unforgettable reading experience for anyone who loves poetry, nature, and memoir.