Publisher Description
In this chronicle of his lifelong obsession with re-creating the lives of writers and scientists, Richard Holmes here casts a new eye not only on the Romantic poets and lost women of Romantic science he has long studied, but on their biographers, as well. He examines the evolution of the myths that have overshadowed certain lives (Percy Shelley's death at sea, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's opium-fueled lectures), and reveals how the manner in which each generation tells the stories of the lives that came before it shapes and is shaped by a contemporary understanding of human nature. These portraits are deftly woven with Holmes' own experience as a biographer. A spellbinding examination of the nature of biographical knowledge, brimming with the infectious curiosity of Holmes' catalog.
Download and start listening now!
About Richard Holmes
Richard Holmes is Professor of Biographical Studies at the University of East Anglia. His is a Fellow of the British Academy, has honorary doctorates from UEA and the Tavistock Institute, and was awarded an OBE in 1992. His first book, ‘Shelley: The Pursuit’, won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1974. ‘Coleridge: Early Visions’ won the 1989 Whitbread Book of the Year, and ‘Dr Johnson & Mr Savage’ won the James Tait Black Prize. ‘Coleridge: Darker Reflections’ won the Duff Cooper Prize and the Heinemann Award. He has published two studies of European biography, ‘Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer’ in 1985, and ‘Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer’ in 2000.
About Charles Armstrong
Charles Armstrong is a narrator and actor whose theater work includes productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, and he was in the West End production of Round The Horne … Revisited. His television and film credits include Holby City, EastEnders, Head Over Heels, Poirot, The King’s Speech, and The Navigators. He has also recorded numerous voice-overs and was part of the BBC Radio Repertory.