This fifth volume covers the period from William Blake to Lord Byron. It begins with an account of the social and intellectual context of English literature during this, the Romantic period, followed by a survey of the literature itself. The rest of the book is made up of a series of essays dealing in detail with Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Crabbe, Keats, Shelley, Byron, Burns, Jane Austen, Scott, and the Essayists. Finally the volume contains an Appendix of biographies and bibliographies.