Informazioni generali

Nome canonico: Richardson, Joanna
Nome legale: Richardson, Joanna Leah
Data di nascita: 1925-08-08
Data di morte: 2008-03-07
Luogo di sepoltura: Kensal Green Cemetery, London, England, UK
Sesso: female
Nazionalità: UK
Luogo di nascita: Golders Green, London, England, UK
Luogo di morte: Camden, London, England, UK
Luogo di residenza: Hampstead, London, England, UK
Istruzione: Downs School, Seaford, Sussex, England, UK
St Anne's College, Oxford (D.Litt.|2005)
Attività lavorative: magazine writer
Literary critic
broadcaster
translator
journalist
biographer
Organizzazioni: The Times
British Broadcasting Corporation
Keats House Museum, Hampstead, UK
Premi e riconoscimenti: Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1987)
Prix Goncourt de la Biographie (1989)
Fellow, Royal Society of Literature (1959)
Agente: Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Breve biografia: Dr Joanna Richardson was the author of 21 biographies, editor and translator of the poems of Verlaine and Baudelaire. She also wrote many popular books on such subjects as the bohemians and courtesans, and was also a broadcaster, a literary critic and a contributor to numerous magazines and newspapers.

She was an assiduous researcher, renowned for her ability to root out original documents from sources commonly believed to have been drained. Her love and knowledge of French 19th-century literature was beyond doubt.

Utenti

Recensioni

The Life and Letters of John Keats di Joanna Richardson

If you expect a modern biography, you will be disappointed. The title of the book tells you exactly what it is - it is a chronology of the life of Keats, told mainly by letters and poetry, with the author providing the connections where required and summarizing letters which are not included (usually the ones to Keats but some parts of his as well) and with almost no analysis (which is a major requirement for a modern biography - thus my first sentence.

It is a short book - its 165 pages makes you expect an easy read. But they are so full of letters written in the early 19th century and poetry excerpts and complete sonnets (and occasionally other poems) that you end up slowing down (and I ended up looking up the poetry which was mentioned but not cited).

I'd admit that Keats is not one of my favorite poets - I like some of his work but the Romantics had never clicked properly with me. Most of what I knew about his life before this book was what I got from a biographical sketch in a textbook a long time ago and the radio drama "Writ in Water" by Angus Graham-Campbell which dramatized the poet's last months to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his death in 2021 (it is available from the BBC site here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sj88).

Early in the book, the letters are mainly about Keats (and his circle), as the book progresses, the only letters which get cited (with a few notable exceptions such as Shelley's letter inviting Keats to Pisa) are the poet's own words. And they don't always paint him in the best light - he is possessive and jealous with the woman who is supposed to become his wife; at the same time he is generous where his brother is concerned. His letters (and the poetry which they often contain) make him look a lot more like a human being and a lot less like the banner poet of the times, dying tragically young and never seeing his own success.

Richardson makes a valiant effort to explain the connection between the different people who show up in the letters - but I found myself rechecking some names when they popped up again in the narrative. If you are aware of the literary circles of the times, that may work a bit better I suspect but even if you are not entirely sure who is who exactly, the letters speak for themselves. Somewhere in there, there are also a lot of details on how a poet of these times was working - from copying poems into clean copies for publishing to scribbling poetry in other books and random pieces of paper. It also makes you wonder how much more poetry did the poets of the era create and is now lost because it was never published and noone bothered to save the pieces.

The volume won't replace a biography of the poet but the letters give you a new appreciation of what we had lost - even the most mundane letters are full of beautiful writing (and the ones to Fanny are especially poetic). It did not make me a big fan of Keats but it showed me a side of his writing which made me look again at poems I had not looked at for decades and which I probably would not have looked at again.… (altro)

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AnnieMod | May 4, 2022 |

Gustave Doré : a biography di Joanna Richardson

good, easy read

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mahallett | Apr 4, 2018 |

Vie Parisienne, 1852-70 di Joanna Richardson

quite good overview. nothing about science as the author admits. a very interesting time period. lots of good photos.

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mahallett | Oct 20, 2017 |

Courtesans: The Demi-Monde in Nineteenth Century… di Joanna Richardson

I wanted to like it more than I did. I has wished for a bit more of a primer on the life of the courtesans as well as the brief biographies within the book. Each chapter is independent of others, which allows you,to skim past ones that do not interest you. It was interesting that many clients were the same names in several chapters. I think this might be better as a second book on this topic, after gleaning some. ore background of the era and the 'profession'.

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flyheatherfly | 3 altre recensioni | Sep 23, 2014 |

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