George Crabbe's literary career began with the assistance of Edmund Burke and the blessing of Samuel Johnson, spanned the lives of Burns, Blake, Byron, Keats, and Shelley, and ended just five years before Queen Victoria ascended the throne. He lived through the American and French revolutions and the fall of Napoleon. He witnessed the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and its political consequences in the struggle over the first Reform Bill. During this time of extraordinary social, political, and literary change, Crabbe wrote prolifically, chiefly tales in heroic couplets, and, during the Regency period, he won critical acclaim, mingled in high society, and pleased the common reader. His poetry in general displays a keen awareness of the unhappiness into which humans lead themselves, tempered by sympathy for human suffering, impatience with self-deceit and illusion, a steady belief in the providential governance of natural and human affairs, and an...