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bestseller. It inspired young men to tour the places frequented by Werther and allegedly
led to a bout of copycat suicides.
so too did Mary Wollstonecraft, the mother of Mary Shelley, a political activist and one of
the earliest champions of women's rights.
But caution should be exercised in assuming that Keats was a kind of weepy Man of
Feeling. There is an anecdote of Keats's life that, even if untrue, provides a contrary
image. It is useful to recall if you ever find yourself visualising him, and other Romantics,
as drooping petals. His friend, Charles Cowden Clarke described an incident whereby
Keats, at that time ill with the tuberculosis that eventually killed him, came across a
butcher torturing a kitten. 'They fought for nearly an hour', noted Clarke, and in the end,
'the fellow was bled, or carried home.'
In other words, Keats did not collapse, weeping at the plight of the kitten. He did not
meditate upon the inherent cruelty of humanity. He beat the man almost senseless. He
must have been really angry.