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Both the subject and the intention of this book are likely to appeal to those analysts who, like myself, see an affinity between the Romantic Movement of the late 18th and early 19th century and psychoanalysis. I agree with the author that these poets shared Freud's belief in the importance of the imagination as manifested in dreams, reminiscences, and reverie and that they in part anticipated some of his ideas. An example of this in the area of memory is Wordsworth's concept of spots of time and Freud's screen memories: “There are in our existence spots of time / Which with distinct pre-eminence retain / A fructifying virtue” (Wordsworth, Abrams, & Gill, 1979, p. 8). Wilson examines the examples of these special memories given by Wordsworth in The Prelude making links between the text and a variety of psychoanalytic and literary comments. He tends to proceed largely by quoting others; I cannot tell whether he feels helped or hindered by the weight of other opinions in his literary journey but it does make it harder for the reader to follow him.
The main aim of this book is to describe and illuminate the Romantics' notions of dreams and unconscious mental life, eventually centering on a passage of The Prelude to be found in both the