A rich and riveting portrait of the man who wrote Gulliver's Travels.
John Stubbs was born in 1977 and studied English at Oxford and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge where he completed a doctorate in 2005. Donne- The Reformed Soul was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Reprobates was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.
Stubbs succeeds in offering something delicate, subtle and new. ...
In [this] fine and sensitive book, Stubbs restores Swift's writing
to its rich religious and cultural contexts without diminishing its
autonomy -- Ruth Scurr * Financial Times *
Stubbs is an ideal guide to the tortuous ins and outs of Swift's
time, an age defined by its political and religious conflicts, and
their effects on his writing. * Daily Telegraph *
In this superb biography, Stubbs succeeds in enabling us to
understand the complexities and character of this greatest of
writers * The Times Book of the Week *
John Stubbs handles the intensely complicated political and
historical background to Swift's life with admirable deftness and
clarity. There have been dozens of lives of Swift. This one, unlike
some of its predecessors, is readable, sane, alert and beautifully
observed -- Freya Johnston * Literary Review *
Stubbs goes further than any [biographer] previously in recreating
the world Swift lived and exploring the duality of his character.
... [Along] with beautifully crafted lines... Another feature of
Stubb's biography is its vast historical scholarship. As well as
giving us a thoroughly credible Swift, this is a riveting account
of English and Irish life in the late 17th and early 18th
centuries. If there can be a definitive life of Jonathan Swift,
this is it -- John Gray * New Statesman *
Stubbs offers a kinder, rather admiring inspection of the great
fighter and ruthless truth-teller -- John Walsh * Sunday Times
*
Impressive [and] astoundingly readable * The Sunday Times *
An entertaining and ambitious work that intelligently binds
together the art and the politics of mid-17th-century England --
Charles Spencer on 'Reprobates' * Financial Times *
On fire with ideas and enthusiasm, excels at providing Donne with a
living context -- Miranda Seymour on 'John Donne' * Sunday Times
*
Highly readable, dashing as well as detailed -- Andrew Motion on
'John Donne' * Guardian *
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