Dorothy Wordsworth

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) published nothing during her lifetime, save the short extracts from her journals and letters which her brother included in his Guide to the Lakes. Dorothy spent most of her life caring for her brother, William, and his family, working, travelling and studying with him and his friends who included de Quincey, Coleridge and Southey. This selection presents Dorothy Wordsworth's writing as a discrete text, giving her a separate authorial voice from that of her brother, bringing her to a new generation of students, scholars and enthusiasts.
Of the journals represented here, The Alfoxden Journal covers the first four months of 1798 and The Grasmere Journal covers the period between May 1800 and January 1803. The early journals contain an informal, impressionistic record, covering a wide range of details from the domestic to observations on nature. Her later travel journals include vivid topographical writing and much detailed recollection of places, encounters and adventures. The Journal of a Tour on the Continent (1820) was a much more formal piece of work whose style was modelled on the conventions of travel writing. The Journal of My Second Tour in Scotland (1822) and Journal of a Tour in the Isle of Man (1828) less conventionally present the experiences of a woman travelling in early nineteenth century Britain, constantly interested in other lives, especially those of other women, and showing a relish for individuals distinctly free from Romantic egoism.