Narrative

21. In 1801, Southey’s epic poem, Thalaba the Destroyer, was published. Written concurrently with Coleridge’s famous poem, Kubla Kahn (1797), the two poets shared many source materials during their research, as evidenced by the shared themes and subject matter of both texts. Southey began formally composing Thalaba in Burton and continued writing during his time abroad in Portugal. After completing the poem in 1800, he continued editing it for publication until 1801. The poem ultimately suffered from poor sales, as evidence by the fact that only half of the initial print run of one thousand copies was sold by 1804. Despite poor sales at the time of initial publication, renewed interest in the poet led to this re-edition of Southey’s Thalaba the Destroyer (1801) in 1814 for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row.