In this authoritative biography, Donald Thomas vividly portrays Algernon Charles Swinburne as the brandy-inspired orator of his youth as well as the meek versifier of his later years. With portraits of Sir Richard Burton, Burns-Jones and Trevelyan, and critical assessment of Swinburne's major works, this biography presents us with an absorbing and lively picture of both the poet and the man who lived from one century into the next with an undiminished appetite for life.