ROME -- The Keats-Shelley House in Rome is set to mark the quartercentenary of William Shakespeare’s death with a seminar that will look at “Keats as a Reader of Shakespeare.”

 As this year also marks the bicentenary of the year John Keats decided to give up the path his parents had chosen for him in life of medicine to become a full-time writer and primarily poet after his first published work, a sonnet titled “O Solitude” appeared in Leigh Hunt’s publication ‘The Examiner’ in May 1816, it seems a fitting time to look at the little known relation between Keats’ work and his reading of the bard.

 Speakers are set to include: R. S. White, the Chief Investigator for the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, and Leader of the Centre’s Meanings Programme, along with Adjunct Professor in English at La Sapienza Università di Roma Davide Crosara, Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Cassino Maria Valentini, and Professor of English and Comparative Literatures at the Scuola Normale in Pisa Nadia Fusini.  Meanwhile, Rory Stuart and Michael Fitzpatrick will give readings from various poems and letters. 

 The seminar will start at two p.m. on Thursday May 5 and advance booking is essential, as is the registration fee of 25 euros.  Any enquiries and bookings should be directed towards info@ksh.roma.it.

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