Joanna Baillie: A Selection of Plays and Poems

What drives human passion and moral choice? Joanna Baillie's Selected Plays and Poems presents the essential works of one of the Romantic era's most respected and innovative writers—a Scottish dramatist and poet whose psychological depth and dramatic power earned the admiration of Walter Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth. Baillie (1762-1851) pioneered a new kind of drama focused on exploring the passions—fear, hatred, love, jealousy—through psychologically complex characters facing moral dilemmas. Her poetry combines lyrical beauty with dramatic intensity, exploring Scottish landscape, human emotion, and the inner workings of the mind with unprecedented insight. Though primarily known as a dramatist, Baillie's poetry reveals the same gifts for character, emotion, and moral exploration that made her plays celebrated throughout Britain and Europe.

This collection includes Baillie's essential poems and critical prefaces, her acclaimed tragedies De Montfort (exploring hatred and its consequences) and Basil, the comedy The Alienated Manor, and substantial extracts from her other dramatic and poetic works. Baillie's poetry ranges from Scottish songs and ballads to nature lyrics and meditative verse, all marked by psychological acuity and moral seriousness. Her critical prefaces articulate a revolutionary theory of drama as psychological exploration, arguing that theater should reveal the inner workings of passion and moral choice. Her voice combines intellectual rigor with emotional depth, dramatic power with lyrical grace, creating works that engage both mind and heart.

For contemplative readers, Baillie's work offers profound meditation on passion, morality, and human psychology. Her work asks: What drives our emotions and shapes our choices? How do passions like fear, hatred, and love influence moral action? What is the relationship between understanding human nature and living ethically? How do we balance reason and emotion, duty and desire? Baillie's verse and drama become companions for exploring the inner life—illuminating the psychological and moral dimensions of human experience with compassion and insight.

What You'll Discover
Baillie's essential poems, plays, and critical writings (1762-1851)
Tragedies: De Montfort, Basil, and psychological drama
Scottish songs, ballads, and lyric poetry
Critical prefaces on drama as psychological exploration
Contemplative insights into passion, morality, and human psychology
A major Romantic voice admired by Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth

Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) was a Scottish poet and dramatist whose innovative "plays on the passions" explored human psychology with unprecedented depth. Her work was celebrated throughout Europe, translated into multiple languages, and performed on major stages. Though later overshadowed by male Romantic writers, Baillie was recognized in her time as one of the era's most important literary figures. Modern scholarship has restored her reputation as a pioneering psychological dramatist and accomplished poet whose exploration of emotion and morality remains compelling.

Perfect for: Readers of Romantic poetry and drama, students of Joanna Baillie and British Romanticism, contemplative readers exploring passion and morality, those interested in women writers and Scottish literature, anyone drawn to psychological depth and dramatic intensity, readers of Romantic-era theater and poetic drama, students of literary history and the psychology of emotion.

Hardcover edition. Baillie's essential plays and poems—offering contemplative wisdom on passion, morality, and human psychology through the dramatic and lyrical voice of Romantic Scotland's most celebrated woman writer.