Outsiders by Lyndall Gordon
In five chapters - 'Prodigy', 'Spinster', 'Visionary', 'Outcast', 'Dreamer', Lyndall Gordon will look into the connections between creativity and outsiders in particular lives - the lives of Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Olive Schreiner and Virginia Woolf.
Gordon is a natural storyteller, and the lives stir us and fascinate us no matter how well we already know them. . full of novelistic insight, pushing into the biographical material to substantiate her hunches, tracing patterns and repetitions in these writers' emotional lives and in their work -- Tessa Hadley * Guardian *
Gordon succeeds in showing not only the pain but "the possibilities of the outsider" . While distinctive in their voices, these writers converge "in their hatred of our violent world", exposing domestic and systemic violence. Their strength of spirit shines from the pages and through the ages -- Anita Sethi * Observer *
Impeccably researched . . . an excellent read * The Lady *
Lyndall Gordon's empathetic commitment to the unfolding story in the lives of literary figures is central to her work * Daily Telegraph *
The work and lives of Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Mary Shelley, Olive Schreiner and Virginia Woolf are well known. Gordon's thesis sets out just how original and brave they were - and at what cost. We owe them much -- Joan Bakewell * New Statesman *
In subtle and elegant interpretations, Gordon allows us to see their novels 'afresh'. The pattern she traces in their writing is equally striking: each woman refused, as Gordon puts it, 'to make terms with our violent world', and this is what makes their voices so modern . . . She is a biographer of the imagination as opposed to a recorder of historical facts. -- Frances Wilson * Mail on Sunday *
Thought-provoking . . . enticing -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman *
Gordon rallies the reader to look to these five as the trailblazers and inspiration for our own lives. * Emerald Street *
Gordon succeeds in showing not only the pain but "the possibilities of the outsider" . While distinctive in their voices, these writers converge "in their hatred of our violent world", exposing domestic and systemic violence. Their strength of spirit shines from the pages and through the ages -- Anita Sethi * Observer *
Impeccably researched . . . an excellent read * The Lady *
Lyndall Gordon's empathetic commitment to the unfolding story in the lives of literary figures is central to her work * Daily Telegraph *
The work and lives of Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Mary Shelley, Olive Schreiner and Virginia Woolf are well known. Gordon's thesis sets out just how original and brave they were - and at what cost. We owe them much -- Joan Bakewell * New Statesman *
In subtle and elegant interpretations, Gordon allows us to see their novels 'afresh'. The pattern she traces in their writing is equally striking: each woman refused, as Gordon puts it, 'to make terms with our violent world', and this is what makes their voices so modern . . . She is a biographer of the imagination as opposed to a recorder of historical facts. -- Frances Wilson * Mail on Sunday *
Thought-provoking . . . enticing -- Erica Wagner * New Statesman *
Gordon's book is a pertinent reminder of the risks each of them bravely faced in order to save themselves from
the fate of a Maggie Tulliver or a Judith Shakespeare and leave posterity with their remarkable works
Gordon rallies the reader to look to these five as the trailblazers and inspiration for our own lives. * Emerald Street *
Lyndall Gordon is the prize-winning author of six biographies,including Lives Like Loaded Guns:Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds and The Imperfect Life of TS Eliot, and also Shared Lives, a memoir of women's friendship in her native South Africa. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and lives in Oxford where she is a fellow of St Hilda's College.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780349006345 |
| ISBN 10 | 0349006342 |
| Title | Outsiders |
| Author | Lyndall Gordon |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Little, Brown Book Group |
| Year published | 2017-10-26 |
| Number of pages | 352 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |