Synopses & Reviews
Though he never published any of his English poems during his lifetime, George Herbert (1593and#150;1633) is recognized as possibly the greatest religious poet in the language. Few English poets of his age still inspire such intense devotion today. In this richly perceptive biography, John Drury for the first time integrates Herbertand#8217;s poems fully into his life, enriching our understanding of both the poetand#8217;s mind and his work.
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As Drury writes in his preface, Herbert lived and#147;a quiet life with a crisis in the middle of it.and#8221; Drury follows Herbert from his academic success as a young man, seemingly destined for a career at court, through his abandonment of those hopes, his devotion to the restoration of a church in Huntingdonshire, and his final years as a country parson. Because Herbertand#8217;s work was only published posthumously, it has always been difficult to know when or in what context Herbert wrote his poems. But Drury skillfully places readings of the poems into his narrative at biographically credible moments, allowing us to appreciate not only Herbertand#8217;s frame of mind while writing, but also the society that produced it. A sensitive critic of Herbertand#8217;s poems as well as a theologian, Drury does full justice to the spiritual dimension of Herbertand#8217;s work. In addition, he reveals the occasions of sorrow, happiness, regret, and hope that Herbert captured in his poetry and that led T. S. Eliot to write, and#147;What we can confidently believe is that every poem . . . is true to the poetand#8217;s experience.and#8221;
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Painting a picture of a man torn between worldly ambition and spiritual life,and#160;Music at Midnightand#160;is an eloquent biography that breathes new life into some of the greatest English poems ever written.
Review
"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."
Review
"Highly readable...Stubbs manages to make Donne seem recognizable and sympathetic, and also the inhabitant of a world that has long since disappeared."
Review
"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."
Review
"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."
Review
and#8220;Readers who are tempted into the book by its focus on the life will finish with something far richer than more conventional biographies offer. . . . It is hard to imagine a better book for anyone, general reader or seventeenth-century aficionado or teacher or student, newly embarking on Herbert.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Powerfully absorbing.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Drury manages wonderfully in bringing text and context profitably together. His book is especially valuable, and enjoyable, in its deft and insightful expositions of Herbertand#8217;s formal and stylistic brilliance.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Being an English country minister has inspired many writers, none of them more lapidary, precise, witty and surprising than George Herbert, the frail intellectual who preached to the parish of Bemerton from 1630 to 1633. An account of an Anglican priest and his poetry that will probably never be bettered.and#8221;
Review
"A welcome, rich, and illuminating biography."
Review
"Druryand#8217;s book is a careful blend of life, poetry, history, and textual analysis. For the first time, Herbertand#8217;s poems are embedded in his life. . . . Drury excels at demonstrating that Herbertand#8217;s poetry manages to be beguilingly simple and strikingly complex. . . . Druryand#8217;s scholarly and immensely readable biography . . . presents the most fully realized Herbert to date."
Review
"Every Christian should be familiar with the poems of George Herbert. . . .The bookand#8217;s strength lies in Druryand#8217;s ability to explain Herbertand#8217;s theology and draw out the Christian meaning in the poems. . . . The book is academic enough for scholars, but easily accessible to the lay reader with a bit of patience."
Review
andldquo;Offers a deeply sympathetic, sensitive introduction to Herbert.andrdquo;
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
From scholar to buccaneer, from outcast to establishment figure, John Donne emerged as one of the greatest English poets. Following Donne from Plague-ridden streets to palaces, from taverns to the pulpit of St Paul's, John Stubbs's "exemplary literary biography" (Harold Bloom) is a vivid portrait of an extraordinary writer and his country at a time of bewildering and cruel transformation.
Synopsis
"Elegantly written, psychologically and historically astute."'"Los Angeles Times Book Review
Synopsis
"Will reveal Donne to a new generation...[and] propel John Stubbs into the first rank of biographers."--Peter Ackroyd
Synopsis
George Herbert (1593-1633) was one of the great English poets and possibly the greatest religious poet in the language. He still inspires intense admiration, and his verse is available in many editions and countless anthologies. Herbertand#8217;s poems naturally inspire curiosity about his life, and the first biography of Herbert (by Isaak Walton) appeared as early as 1670. Yet no biography of Herbert is currently in print. John Druryand#8217;s and#147;Music at Midnightand#8221; will take its place as the best biography of Herbert ever written, and one of the best biographies of a Renaissance poet. As a churchman himself, Drury does full justice to the spiritual dimension of Herbertand#8217;s work. In accessible and elegant prose, Drury tells the story of Herbertand#8217;s life, times, and literary achievement. None of Herbertand#8217;s English poems were published in his lifetime, and it is impossible to know what he wrote when. Drury finesses this problem by placing his readings of the poems into his narrative at biographically credible moments. It is an effective strategy that makes a truly satisfying book for the reader; when we read the poetry in a plausible biographical context it means even more than it did before.
About the Author
John Stubbs received his PhD in Renaissance literature from Cambridge University. His biography John Donne: The Reformed Soul was shortlisted for the Costa Award and won the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award. He lives in Slovenia.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: Herbertand#8217;s World
Part One
1.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Childhood
2.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Westminster
3.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; A Young Man at Cambridge
4.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; 1618
5.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Deputy to Orator
6.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Francis Bacon
Interlude: The Williams Manuscript
Part Two
7.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Lost in a Humble Way
8.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Bemerton: Being a Country Person
9.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Herbertand#8217;s Days and Years
Part Three
10.and#160; Heirs and Imitators
11.and#160; Herbertand#8217;s Readers
12.and#160; The Bread of Faithful Speech
13.and#160; Music at the Close
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index of Works
General Index