This is the only fully annotated and comprehensive selection of Tennyson's poetry. Acknowledged as a major achievement of editorial scholarship, it has established itself as the standard edition of Tennyson. The collection contains in full all four of Tennyson's long poems: The Princess, In Memoriam, Maud, and Idylls of the King. Other key works are included from Mariana, The Lady of Shallott, Morte d'Arthur, Ulysses, and Tithonus through Tennyson's middle life and the Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, to his last years and Crossing the Bar.

Tennyson: A Selected Edition is drawn from Christopher Ricks' own The Poems of Tennyson, which first appeared in 1969 and was published as a second, three-volume edition, in 1987. Acclaimed by both the literary and academic worlds, it is acknowledged as a major achievement of editorial scholarship and has established itself as the authoritative edition of the great poet of the Victorian age.