The first volume of Richard Holmes's award-winning biography of Coleridge (Coleridge: Early Visions) left the 32-year-old poet, critic, metaphysician, lecturer and journalist on a ship bound for Italy in 1802, fleeing the chaos of his life in England. Rejoining him is like a reunion with an old friend for whom we feel an exasperated affection. Holmes presents Coleridge from multiple perspectives in all his enthusiasm, depression, despair, self-absorption, self-destruction and brilliance, without apologising for him. Written with imaginative sympathy rather than pedantic inclusiveness, and displaying impressive critical subtlety (especially on the Notebooks, the haunting late poems, and the flawed monster, the Biographia Literaria), this is a magnificent work of reclamation.