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A review by richardwells
Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph by Lucasta Miller
5.0
Living under the notion the Romantics were difficult to incomprehensibly archaic, I've been avoiding the boys ever since I first heard of them. I have a friend, though, who is quite taken by them - even to the point of walking through British countryside, more or less in their footsteps. So, I decided I'd give them a shot, and when this biography showed up in the NY Times I thought I'd jump in. I'm glad I did.
Lucasta Miller has chosen nine great works, each as a starting place into a period of Keats' short life. She's a close reader of the poetry without being overly academic, and is obviously fond of Keats as a young man and poet. She gives us all of Keats, cameos of Byron and Shelley, and others in Keats' more immediate circle, and makes this history and the London haunts of the poets as exciting as reading about a contemporary rock star.
As it turns out, the poems are not incomprehensible, especially as we're guided through any obscurities by Ms. Miller's grasp, and easy style.
I may have to move on to Shelley - from what I understand, a real bad boy.
Lucasta Miller has chosen nine great works, each as a starting place into a period of Keats' short life. She's a close reader of the poetry without being overly academic, and is obviously fond of Keats as a young man and poet. She gives us all of Keats, cameos of Byron and Shelley, and others in Keats' more immediate circle, and makes this history and the London haunts of the poets as exciting as reading about a contemporary rock star.
As it turns out, the poems are not incomprehensible, especially as we're guided through any obscurities by Ms. Miller's grasp, and easy style.
I may have to move on to Shelley - from what I understand, a real bad boy.