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The book is divided into two parts, one written by each author. We will note the resemblances and the differences in the conclusions reached. Of the former, the main and indeed the central theme of the book is to the effect that Shelley had an unusually strong homosexual component, the repression of which gives an explanation of much that is puzzling in both his character and his writings. It is Mr. Barnefield who chiefly develops the psycho-pathological aspect of this theme. But he does this very superficially, his sole key being the conflict between masculinity and femininity. There is little glimpse of the unconscious infantile layers concerned with the more fundamental stages in the development of the libido which underlie conflicts that on the surface can sometimes be expressed in terms of masculine versus feminine. To give one example: Mr. Barnefield would ascribe Shelley's interest in brother and sister incest to his conflict over the relation between male and female (p. 93). His occasional references to psycho-analytical literature are a little unhappy, such as when he cites Bousfield on a par with Freud and Ferenczi.
The authors differ in the view taken of Shelley's heterosexuality. On the one hand, Mr. Carpenter writes: 'His fervent and unceasing idealization of his female friends does, to my mind, make any contention of the above kind (i.e. that his predominant love-attraction was towards his own sex) seem decidedly difficult. Shelley was quite normal, I should say, in the majority of his love affairs' (pp. 28–29). On the other hand, Mr. Barnefield thinks that the repressed homosexuality lay behind most of Shelley's idealization of women and that he did not truly love any of them.
Both authors are evidently more than sympathetic in their attitude towards homosexuality and its cultural potentialities, but they differ somewhat in what they think would have been the most likely development of Shelley's mentality had he lived longer. Mr. Carpenter,