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from: NYRB Classics
List Price: $22.95Amazon.com's Price: $15.61 You Save: $7.34 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 821.7
EAN: 9781590170373
ISBN: 1590170377
Label: NYRB Classics
Manufacturer: NYRB Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 880
Publication Date: 2003-03
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Release Date: May 31, 2003
Sales Rank: 385850
Studio: NYRB Classics
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Shelley: The Pursuit is the book with which Richard Holmes—the finest literary biographer of our day—made his name. Dispensing with the long-established Victorian picture of Shelley as a blandly ethereal character, Holmes projects a startling image of 'a darker and more earthly, crueler and more capable figure.' Expelled from college, disowned by his aristocratic father, driven from England, Shelley led a life marked from its beginning to its early end by a violent rejection of society; he embraced rebellion and disgrace without thought of the cost to himself or to others. Here we have the real Shelley—radical agitator, atheist, apostle of free love, but above all a brilliant and uncompromising poetic innovator, whose life and work have proved an essential inspiration to poets as varied as W.B. Yeats and Allen Ginsberg.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Unacknowledged legislators
After reading Miranda Seymour's biography of Mary Shelley I looked around for an account of P. B. Shelley and found this excellent biography of the poet. The whole generation and family from Mary Wollstonecraft onwards makes a dynastic epic, and a good history of the social politics of a radical generation living through the Restoration. There the ethereal Shelley myth is corrected by a portrait of a radical who had the courage and will to attempt to extract himself form his aristocratic family ... Read More
Rating: - Monumental and all-inclusive
How is it possible that the world's largest online bookstore doesn't stock any biography of Shelley? He was, after all, not just a poet, but a fascinating character even without taking his literary accomplishments into account. I found Mr. Holmes's great biography in an Oxford, UK bookstore. And I must say it's amazing. I can't believe it was written by a 28-year-old. The research done here is nothing short of astounding. I must say, however, that the long pages devoted to Shelley's political creed ... Read More
Rating:  - Interesting; valuable; dated
It's probably time for a new Shelley biography, despite Holmes' excellent work. I couldn't recommend this book without a number of caveats.
It was valuable in its time, for countering that Victorian view of the angelic depoliticised and emasculated Shelley. But it's still a document of its time.
There are two things that were wrong with the book even at the time it was written. One is the constant failure to mention instances of Shelley's extraordinary generosity and kindness ... Read More
Rating: - The superlative Shelley biography
As a Shelley lover I've read numerous biographies, but this will be the last one as no amount of research or writing talent can improve on this book. Richard Holmes clearly did an enormous amount of research and his attention to detail is extraordinary. His love for his subject comes through strongly yet he remains objective throughout and is not blind to Shelley's flaws. His descriptive writing also paints a fascinating picture of the interesting and tough times during which Shelley lived and his wonderful ... Read More
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