The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1 [of 2]

"The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1 [of 2]" by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a collection of the author's prose writings compiled and edited in the late 19th century. This volume includes a variety of works, such as the youthful romances "Zastrozzi" and "St. Irvyne," along with political pamphlets, essays, and letters, which showcase Shelley’s thoughts on philosophy, politics, and art. The topics explored throughout the text reflect the author's deep engagement with themes of love, revenge, and the nature of existence as he crafts a narrative threaded with emotional intensity. The opening of the collection introduces "Zastrozzi," a dark romance steeped in themes of revenge and imprisonment. The narrative begins with Verezzi, a character depicted as a victim of grave persecution by the ruthless Zastrozzi. With a backdrop of eerie darkness, revenge plots uncoil as Zastrozzi seeks to eliminate his enemy, leading to Verezzi's abduction and ensuing torment within a cavernous prison. The tension builds as the story unfolds in a chiaroscuro of hope and despair, unraveling psychological and physical struggles, and introducing the reader to the complex interplay of vengeance, madness, and the psychological impacts of captivity that will characterize the unfolding tale. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats. American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem."