John Donne: The Reformed Soul by John Stubbs
Metamorphosing from scholar to buccaneer, from outcast to establishment figure, John Donne emerged as one of the greatest English poets, concentrating the paradoxes of his age within his own crises of desire and devotion. Following Donne from Plague-ridden streets to palaces, from the taverns on the Bankside to the pulpit of St. Paul's, John Stubbs's biography is a vivid portrait of an extraordinary writer and his country at a time of bewildering and cruel transformation.
Rich, generous and capacious...Its triumph is to show how the brilliant, abrasive, phenomenally direct voice of the Songs and Sonnets...deepens and darkens, cracking sometimes under the harsh strain of his middle years, only to re-emerge in the humane and powerful sermons of his last decade.
Highly readable...Stubbs manages to make Donne seem recognizable and sympathetic, and also the inhabitant of a world that has long since disappeared.
An exemplary literary biography. Stubbs has all the appropriate skills: lucid prose style, deep historical knowledge, and a deftness in reading poems with a marvelous economy in his comments. I am grateful to Stubbs for aiding me to see John Donne more accurately and sympathetically, a person and a poet.
John Stubbs treats Donne as 'a living concoction of differing, frightened spiritualities' in this vivid portrait, this rich and full life, of an English immortal enmeshed in his time. The result is a wonderfully precise study of a great poet, a soul formed and reformed. It is a stunning biographical debut.
Highly readable...Stubbs manages to make Donne seem recognizable and sympathetic, and also the inhabitant of a world that has long since disappeared.
An exemplary literary biography. Stubbs has all the appropriate skills: lucid prose style, deep historical knowledge, and a deftness in reading poems with a marvelous economy in his comments. I am grateful to Stubbs for aiding me to see John Donne more accurately and sympathetically, a person and a poet.
John Stubbs treats Donne as 'a living concoction of differing, frightened spiritualities' in this vivid portrait, this rich and full life, of an English immortal enmeshed in his time. The result is a wonderfully precise study of a great poet, a soul formed and reformed. It is a stunning biographical debut.
John Stubbs studied English at Oxford and Renaissance literature at Cambridge, where he completed a doctorate. John Donne was awarded a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award and shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award. Stubbs lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780393062601 |
| ISBN 10 | 0393062600 |
| Title | John Donne: The Reformed Soul |
| Author | John Stubbs |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 2007-03-30 |
| Number of pages | 592 |
| Prizes | Short-listed for Costa Book Awards (Biography) 2006 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |