This book was first published in 1970. It seems sensible to leave it exactly as it was rather than to rewrite anything. However, if there is anything I feel should be added, or changed, it would be to take account of the discovery of the revelatory correspondence between William and Mary Wordsworth, published in 1982. These letters make it clear that whatever Wordsworth’s feelings toward his sister, and hers toward him, the marriage of William and Mary was both deeply loving and steadily passionate.
A.S. Byatt, June 1989