PETER LEVI
EDWARD LEAR: A LIFE
Tauris Parke Paperbacks
New edition (January 14, 2014)
EDWARD LEAR: A LIFE
Tauris Parke Paperbacks
New edition (January 14, 2014)
New edition of the biography of the poet (and painter) who lived and died in Sanremo.
Edward Lear—beloved nonsense poet, author of such adored poems as The Owl and the Pussycat, inventor of otherworldly characters like Quangle-Wangles and of the modern limerick; lauded artist and illustrator—was a genius who defies classification. Gregarious and popular, Lear had a wide circle of friends, but was often lonely and subject to frequent bouts of depression and debilitating epilepsy. In this captivating biography, fellow poet Peter Levi renders descriptions of Lear's sketches and watercolors (of which he painted some 10,000 in the course of his career) and provides incisive portraits of his classic poems, such as The Jumblies, The Owl and the Pussycat and The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo, setting them in the wider context of traditional nursery rhymes. Lear belonged to the great tradition of adventurous British travellers, undertaking extensive journeys in Italy and Greece, Albania, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine and India and these always-eventful journeys are related here, alongside extracts and quotations from his letters and diaries—an essential biography for all lovers of this remarkable British literary figure and now recognized as one of the greatest nineteenth century landscape painters.
Edward Lear—beloved nonsense poet, author of such adored poems as The Owl and the Pussycat, inventor of otherworldly characters like Quangle-Wangles and of the modern limerick; lauded artist and illustrator—was a genius who defies classification. Gregarious and popular, Lear had a wide circle of friends, but was often lonely and subject to frequent bouts of depression and debilitating epilepsy. In this captivating biography, fellow poet Peter Levi renders descriptions of Lear's sketches and watercolors (of which he painted some 10,000 in the course of his career) and provides incisive portraits of his classic poems, such as The Jumblies, The Owl and the Pussycat and The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo, setting them in the wider context of traditional nursery rhymes. Lear belonged to the great tradition of adventurous British travellers, undertaking extensive journeys in Italy and Greece, Albania, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine and India and these always-eventful journeys are related here, alongside extracts and quotations from his letters and diaries—an essential biography for all lovers of this remarkable British literary figure and now recognized as one of the greatest nineteenth century landscape painters.
