The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is one of the best-known and best-loved poems in the English language. It is the longest major poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and was written in 1797-98 and revised in 1817. The mariner stops a man who is on the way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The wedding-guest's reaction turns from bemusement to impatience to fear to fascination as Coleridge uses narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create a sense of danger, the supernatural, or serenity, depending on the mood in different parts of the poem.

This Macmillan Collector's Library edition features colour illustrations by Gustave Dore (1832-1883), the most remarkable wood engraver of the 19th century. He illustrated many major works of literature from the Bible to Don Quixote, the Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost

Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.