Shelley and his Contemporaries
This chapter surveys the extent of Shelley’s fame and notoriety while he was alive. The period before his move to Italy in early 1818 was mainly isolated, but he was nevertheless known about in the privileged circles into which he was born—a landed aristocratic family, Eton, and Oxford. His eccentricity and strong views set him apart from his own class, but the extremity and free expression of his radicalism also alienated fellow radicals. In poetic terms he was astute in recognizing those contemporaries of lasting value. Specific attention is given to Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Thomas Moore. The years in Italy were also isolated except for the period of the ‘Pisan Circle’. Keats and Byron are an important presence in Shelley’s later work, rather than overt influences.