This Second Edition is based on the authoritative texts chosen by the editors from their scholarly edition of The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Each selection has been thoroughly reedited, and the order of the poems has been rearranged in light of redating or other reconsiderations. All headnotes are new or updated, and many footnotes have been added, replaced, or revised. "Criticism" reflects the recent renaissance in Shelley studies, the greatest renaissance since 1870-92. All twenty-three essays are new to the Second Edition; among them are the work of Harold Bloom, Stuart Curran, Annette Wheeler Cafarelli, Michael Ferber, James Chandler, and Susan J. Wolfson. A Chronology, an updated Selected Bibliography, and an Index of Titles and First Lines are included.

Shelley's Poetry and Prose (Norton Critical Editions)

Literature & Fiction

Shelley, Percy

Reiman, Donald H. (editor)

Powers, Sharon B. (editor)

Poetry

W.W.Norton&Company

Zastrozzi: A Romance

Blurb

Zastrozzi

Classics

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

<p>The Necessity of Atheism is a classic religious essay by the great English poet, Percy Shelley. A close examination of the validity of the proofs adduced to support any proposition is the only secure way of attaining truth, on the advantages of which it is unnecessary to descant: our knowledge of the existence, of a Deity is a subject of such importance that it cannot be too minutely investigated; in consequence of this conviction we proceed briefly and impartially to examine the proofs which have been adduced. It is necessary first to consider the nature of belief. The tract starts with the following rationale of the author's goals: "As a love of truth is the only motive which actuates the Author of this little tract, he earnestly entreats that those of his readers who may discover any deficiency in his reasoning, or may be in possession of proofs which his mind could never obtain, would offer them, together with their objections to the Public, as briefly, as methodically, as plainly as he has taken the liberty of doing." Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism Shelley made a number of claims in Necessity, including that one's beliefs are involuntary, and, therefore, that atheists do not choose to be so and should not be persecuted. Towards the end of the pamphlet he writes: "the mind cannot believe in the existence of a God." Shelley signed the pamphlet, Thro' deficiency of proof, AN ATHEIST, which gives an idea of the empiricist nature of Shelley's beliefs. According to Berman, Shelley also believed himself to have "refuted all the possible types of arguments for God's existence," but Shelley himself encouraged readers to offer proofs if they possess them. Opinion is divided upon the characterisation of Shelley's beliefs, at the time of the writing of Necessity. At the very beginning of his note on the line "There is no God" in Canto VII of Queen Mab, published just two years later and based on Necessity, Shelley qualifies his definition of atheism: "There Is No God. This negation must be understood solely to affect a creative Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit co-eternal with the universe remains unshaken." Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab, Canto VII, Note 13 Shelley also quotes the Dutch pantheist Benedict Spinoza later in the Note, but there is no explicit statement of pantheistic views. Shelley scholar Carlos Baker states that "the title of his college pamphlet should have been The Necessity of Agnosticism rather than The Necessity of Atheism," while historian David Berman argues that Shelley was an atheist, both because he characterised himself as such, and because "he denies the existence of God in both published works and private letters" during the same period.</p>

The Necessity of Atheism (annotated)

Religion & Spirituality

Atheism

Shelley's Revolutionary Year

Foot, Paul

Redwords

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