Red Shelley
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 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Paul Foot |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Percy Bysshe Shelley |
| Published | 1981 |
| Publisher | Sidgwick & Jackson |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | 978-0283986796 |
Red Shelley is a 1981 work of literary criticism by Paul Foot. In it, the author draws attention to the radical political stance of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, as revealed in poems such as "Queen Mab" and "The Masque of Anarchy".[1]
Foot describes how Shelley, while living in Italy, heard the news of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Like Shelley, Foot was an alumnus of University College, Oxford (from which Shelley was expelled for expressing atheist views), and held the poet to be his inspiration in embracing socialism.[2]
"The Masque of Anarchy", Foot's favourite poem, was given to his sons to learn by heart,[3] and a live performance by Maxine Peake at the 2013 Manchester International Festival, to commemorate the anniversary of Peterloo was the basis of a BBC Culture Show documentary that referenced Foot's work.[4][5][6]