In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, one of the best-known and best-loved poems in the English language, a grizzled old sailor stops a man on his way to a wedding and tells a terrifying story. He speaks of how he doomed the crew of his ship by shooting dead an albatross, awakened the wrath of ocean spirits, met Death himself, and must now walk the earth for ever and share his tragic tale of sin, guilt and – ultimately – redemption.
This Macmillan Collectors Library edition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s longest major poem features illustrations by Gustave Dore, the most remarkable wood engraver of the nineteenth century, and an introduction by writer and journalist Ned Halley.