Gerard Manley Hopkins was among the most innovative writers of the Victorian period. Experimental and idiosyncratic, his work remains important for any student of nineteenth-century literature and culture.

This guide to Hopkins' life and work offers:

• a detailed account of Hopkins life and creative development
• an extensive introduction to Hopkins' poems, their critical history and the many interpretations of his work
• cross-references between documents and sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism
• suggestions for further reading.

Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Hopkins' work and seeking not only a guide to the poems, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds them.