When Coleridge described the landscapes he passed through while scrambling among the fells, mountains, and valleys of Britain, he did something unprecedented in Romantic writing: to capture what emerged before his eyes, he enlisted a geometric idiom. Immersed in a culture still beholden to Euclid's Elements and schooled by those who subscribed to its principles, he valued geometry both for its pragmatic function and for its role as a conduit to abstract thought. Indeed, his geometric training would often structure his observations on religion, aesthetics, politics, and philosophy. For Coleridge, however, this perspective never competed with his sensitivity to the organic nature of his surroundings but, rather, intermingled with it. Situating Coleridge's remarkable ways of seeing within the history and teaching of mathematics and alongside the eighteenth century's budding interest in non-Euclidean geometry, Ann Colley illuminates the richness of the culture of walking and the surprising potential of landscape writing.

‘Given how young many of the Romantics were when they first started demonstrating remarkable language and thinking skills, it seems a wise move for scholars to investigate their education in school and university, and to consider the poets’ experiences following immediately upon leaving these institutions in their critical studies. Colley’s book is a fine addition to this field of study.’

Catherine Ross Source: The Coleridge Bulletin

‘An excellent monograph on the cartographic and geometrical idiom in Coleridge’s work … taut and focused … Colley pays scrupulous attention to the several crescents and plunging lines with which Coleridge sought to render the various inclines and sudden drops with which he came into bodily contact. ’

Ewan Jones Source: The Review of English Studies

‘Colley … manages to keep her focus sharp, making it a fast and fun read - a notable achievement for a book on poetry and geometry … filled with lifetimes of reading, imagination, and wisdom … genuinely reset[s] our understanding of Romantic-era writers’ engagement with mathematics and their philosophical outlooks based on that engagement.’

Aaron Ottinger Source: The Wordsworth Circle