Originally coming to prominence as an actress and scandalous celebrity, Mary Robinson created an identity for herself as a poet and novelist of the Romantic school. Through a series of literary dialogues with established writers - including Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Charlotte Smith and Mary Wollstonecraft - Robinson put herself at the centre of Romantic literary culture as observer, participant and creator. Cross argues that Robinson's dialogues shaped the nature of Romantic verse and went on to influence second-generation Romantics such as Christina...