John Donne: The Reformed Soul

by John Stubbs

"Will reveal Donne to a new generation...[and] propel John Stubbs into the first rank of biographers."―Peter Ackroyd Metamorphosing from scholar to buccaneer, from outcast to establishment figure, John Donne emerged as one of the greatest English poets, concentrating the paradoxes of his age within his own crises of desire and devotion. Following Donne from Plague-ridden streets to palaces, from the taverns on the Bankside to the pulpit of St. Paul's, John Stubbs's biography is a vivid portrait of an extraordinary writer and his country at a time of bewildering and cruel transformation.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Poetry, History, Biography Memoir, British Literature, Literary Criticism

592 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

John Stubbs received his PhD in Renaissance literature from Cambridge University. His biography John Donne: The Reformed Soul was shortlisted for the Costa Award and won the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award. He lives in Slovenia.

Reviews

[John-Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book probably deserves four stars. Stubbs' writing is learned, balanced, and clean. He knows a lot and he says a lot and he writes well. I recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about John Donne.

So why three stars? I usually try to respect an author's own terms and intentions and not play the "This book isn't good because I wish it were something else" game. BUT... I kinda sorta wanted more about the poetry. Stubbs has English lit degrees from Oxford and Cambridge but he doesn't seem to think that poetry requires interpretation or that it matters at all. He has a rather naive assumption about poems just being about an author's feelings, and those feelings are usually "I like this girl" or "I wish I had a better job" or "The people around me are ridiculous." Granted, there are a lot of poems, including poems by John Donne, that carry one or both of those messages. But they're also, y'know, POEMS. They have lots of meanings and patterns and require interpretive work. Stubbs doesn't do that. He has precious little to say about Donne's poetry and instead takes his religious pamphleteering more seriously. And by "seriously" I don't mean that Stubbs cares too much about the ideas in Donne's pamphlets--he cares about how Donne is trying to advance his career by pleasing various political factions while not offending others more than he has to. Because that's why anybody writes anything.

What I guess I'm saying is that this biography is, like the biographies of Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt and James Shapiro, operating on the assumption that the men of early modern England were motivated almost entirely by careerism, the purpose of which is for a man of intelligence but middling status to rise in society, own nice things, and associate with powerful people. That is to say, early modern poets are exactly like contemporary elite-university professors. They work hard to please the right people and their overriding anxiety is that they never get promoted or make more money. They actually like their patrons and earnestly seek more favor from them. As for their beliefs, they're totally middle-of-the-roaders who think everyone should let everyone else do and believe whatever they like but they're perfectly willing to take on "extremists" in order to please their benevolent masters.

The upside of this approach is one learns a lot about the political and religious controversies of the time, so long as one takes for granted that all religious controversies are really political controversies, and "political" in these cases always means "the competing concerns of nations and interests groups" and not "people who have stuff protecting it from people who don't have stuff." All that matters is how a member of the cognitive elite was able to work the system of economic and administrative elites.

The best parts of the book come towards the end. Stubbs is very good on King James and Edward Alleyn, both of whom have personalities that come off as way more interesting than Donne's. Stubbs doesn't end up say too much about Donne's own personality because he's trying to avoid the "randy Jack Donne grew up to be serious Dr. Donne" story that Donne himself promoted, Isaak Walton popularized, and continues through the biographical tradition. Stubbs doesn't want to tell that story even though it seems like the best way of understanding the man.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I marvel at the unstinting flow of writing of the highest order from the pens of gifted biographers working today. Mr. Stubbs numbers among these persons, and in this life of John Donne he has given us a clear-eyed and incisive examination of the life of an extraordinarily intelligent man, whose political skill, ingenuity and agility as well as his extraordinary capacity to please, mollify and placate just the right people allowed him to survive and prosper in Stuart England, potentially a highly dangerous place for anyone afflicted with talent and ambition. Highly recommended.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Donne was a modern man. He is full of contradictions, faults, neurotic if not psychotic guilt, confusion, love, hope, and faith. To me, he embodies the Anglican Christian, a role-model. Absolutely every aspect of his life resonates with me.

It is sad that there are only echoes of his wife, Ann More. There were so many reasons that this marriage was wrong, marginally legal, scandalous, and a professional drag, yet it remained passionate and sensual. His poetry to his wife indicates a unity of selves in an almost cosmic sense.

I must say on a completely personal note, that even though Thomas Merton brought me to Christ, it has been John Donne who has kept me a Christian. Donne's humanity inspires me to hope for more. Our confused and sometimes pitiful lives can embrace great deeds and good deeds too. And along the way there is a God who won't let go.

[Matt McCormick · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Stubbs is an excellent biographer. His work is well researched, reasoned and is articulated shared. I found it a fascinating account of the English middle to upper classes in the late 1500s and early 1600s. He brings London, its politics and its pestilence to vivid life. He helps explain the birth and development of English Protestantism. Stubbs, however, failed to convert me into a fan of the books subject - John Dunne.

Besides a page worth of memorable writing, I found Donne to be a selfish, self satisfying bore. As far as I can gather he did one extremely risky and noble thing in his life - he married for love. He spent the next twenty years trying to excuse it and dodge the consequences. The bulk of his days were spent making sure those farther up the food chain were satisfied with whatever he dished out. I was reminded of Castiglione's, The Book of the Courtier: look conventionally sharp, speak well and carefully, toady up to and with praise those in power. Above all else, conform to the positions of royalty. Very possibly I'm a poor reader and someday, someone will set me straight by explaining why Donne should be admired. Until then the bell fails to toll for he.

[Jane Louis-Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating read, as much for the sense you get of what Jacobean London was like as for the story of the man himself. The pre-fire St Paul's, crossed by a public boulevard where the great and not-so-good gathered to gossip and hear the news sounds such that I wonder if anyone has focused on it in historical fiction. The religious tensions of the time, and their impact on the subject, are explained in cogent and telling detail, without unnecessary depth, without any attempt to fit the man or his times to a particular thesis, forming a genuinely catholic (small c) appraisal of Donne's life and works. Stubbs doesn't speculate away the gaps, or implicitly fabricate the missing testimonies, but lets the spaces resonate. The pen portraits of Donne's contemporaries, especially James I, Buckingham and Laud, and the 'old player' Alleyn are very good indeed.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE modern biography of John Donne. Stubbs does an excellent job describing Donne's time and place and the seething mass of contradictions that made up the man who is still quoted, read, and talked about today.

[Chad D · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a beautifully written book. So good on historical background, long trails of historical investigation sketched in and lighting up particular moments in Donne's life. I'm thinking particularly of the Earl of Essex's attempted coup against Queen Elizabeth. Where was Donne when that was going down? Stubbs explains what's likely, in living colour.

The biography perhaps relies most on Donne's letters. Which is good. He wrote good letters.

Yet, if I am most interested in Doctor Donne the preacher, the biography has relatively little to say other than orienting his sermons to the political vicissitudes of the time. It is aware of spiritual valence, and sometimes conveys that the sermons are warm or powerful, but sees them (and sees Donne's entire religious experience) primarily as angsty and tension-driven. An even-handed view from outside the homiletic Donne, but the biography hasn't managed to climb inside, as it does for so many other aspects of Donne's fascinating life.

The biography is highly enjoyable, and fair, and the most satisfactory treatment of Donne's life I have found to date.

[Jason Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engrossing biography of a seminal seventeenth Century poet who straddled the religious divisions between the reformation and the civil war. Born a Catholic , he had a very personal Protestant journey (Catholicism became illegal ) that sifted the best and worst of both . His poetry calls for scripture not politics to be each mans arbiter and makes some radical pleas to God to overcome his sin that uses language of violence seduction and rape . A fascinating if tortured pilgrimage through a time of turmoil for truth .

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose to read this book because the title intrigued me. I had a feint knowledge of John Donne. I was not aware that Donne was the author of “no man is an island”, both a concept and a phrase I have been familiar with since high school. I knew enough about him through reading a synopsis of the book to know that this book would contribute to my continued quest for non-fiction that will bring knowledge, insight, and just maybe inspiration to my life. Good choice on my part. I positively enjoyed reading this. It reads like a novel. Stubbs has a writing style that makes, what could have been a very scholarly and dull read, anything but. The book appeals to me in part because John Donne lived during the time of the English Reformation in the 1600's and he was a contemporary of luminaries such as Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth the First. I majored in history in college, so I have a natural affinity for all the history outlined in the story of John Donne. Thanks to TCM and Erroll Flynn films, I had no problem visualizing in my mind many of the events referred to in this book. Stubbs chose to use the old English spelling that Donne and his peers used in their written discourse and correspondence. Sometimes it was a challenge understanding what Donne and his friends were saying, As an example ‘yf” is “if” and “yt” is , you guessed it, “it”. You have to read an entire verse sometimes to figure out what a word is and it is English! I enjoyed reading about this man and to see how he became the “reformed soul” referred to in the title. I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book. “We have within us a torch, a soul, lighter and warmer then any without “ John Donne.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Modern (university) biographers simply don't 'get' religion, that is, in the 17th century, Christianity. Donne was intensely proud of his catholic ancestry but like the globalists of today that is no bar to advancement (you can even put up pictures in your desk at The Economist) provided you swear fealty to the Party and set up internal blocks and purge your own mind from dissent.
This, in essence, is what Donne did. Which puts, I think, his brilliant metaphysical poetry on a new footing. And indeed even Shakespeare (whoever he may have been). So,all this incredible literature is simply a kind of marginalia, a bored crossword mind game, which of course has no bearing on the real meaning OF life. Which is power. And money.
it's unclear Mr (Dr) Subbs understands what is going on here. Because he does not understand religion. Rather like Christopher Hill and his numerous (marxist) books which reduce everything to politics and power. Which is what modern biographers are really interested in.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like other reviewers, I was surprised and disappointed at the relative lack of discussion of Donne's poetry. On one hand, Stubbs' point (I think) was that the poetry was not as central to his life as we might imagine. Whether this is true or not, it is why most of us are even reading a biography of Donne. Most people do not know about his sermons and some, I think, probably assume some of his more famous phrases from his sermons are from his poetry. His turn to religion as vocation is important and central to understanding him, especially in contrast to his earlier "self." But the poetry is central to us, most readers, and therefore I think should have been better represented. Perhaps others disagree?

[loafingcactus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic biography of a man who changed so much over the course of his life. No thesis statement of a life is ever accurate, but if a post-hoc unifying myth can be created it surely makes biography easier. Nothing like that is available in this case.

Born a Catholic, pragmatically transitioning to the Anglican church, Donne found the extremists on all sides foolish and exemplified in all the contradictions of his life the "middle way" the Anglican church has sought.

I came to this book only knowing of Donne's poetry, not knowing there was so much more to the story of how he could be so clear about what people are. So glad to have learned the rest of the story.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one took me a while (I always find non-fiction somewhat time consuming), but it was so worth every minute. Stubbs does an incredible job of making biography erudite yet fascinating and accessible.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The name John Donne was one of those names dropped by high school English teachers enough that students know they are somehow significant, but who never fully materializes. At least, that is how I remember the name Donne being dropped in my own English courses. I remember a clever play on his name: "John Donne, Ann Donne, undone." And I remember his colorful poem "The Flea" somehow comparing intercourse between two lovers to the mixing of their bloods in a flea that had bitten them both:

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know’st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do....

After high school, I tried to read more of his poetry, but I have always had a hard time finding the meaning of the poem, getting lost in odd grammatical structures, anachronisms in spelling and vocabulary. When I found this biography of Donne, I decided I could finally get some of the mystery resolved in what Donne was trying to say. Who was John Donne?

This biography does an excellent job at describing a very complex character, with whom I found myself increasingly identifying with as I read. Donne's life covered a tumultuous time in English history, spanning the English Reformation of Henry VIII and the split with the Catholic Church, all the way to the English Civil War, pitting Royalists and Cromwellians against each other. (Not having ever taken a European history course, I appreciated the historical background throughout the book-- especially the fascinating connection Donne had to the Thirty Year's War, when he served as an English chaplain on a failed diplomatic mission to ease tensions when the Protestant Frederick claimed the Bohemian throne over the Catholic Habsburg heir to the throne Ferdinand. LOVED learning this!).

John was a Catholic in all of this. Not only was he a Catholic, but his family had a long history of fighting for their beliefs and of being martyrs to the cause. John was expected to continue that tradition. But John was a milder man. He eventually became a cleric in the reigning Reformed Church. But he wasn't weak, giving in to pressures around him; but he was a voice of moderation in a world of polar opposites. He thought that Catholics, with their ceremonies and altars, shouldn't try to undermine the ruling authorities. But he also thought that self-righteous Puritans shouldn't be persecuting Catholics. In our own world of extremes, John Donne's voice of moderation comes off as really refreshing. We increasingly like to portray ourselves as martyrs and accuse and condemn those around us.

John believed that we are all connected, that every human being on the earth makes the lives of us all inherently better. He believed we had a duty to our fellow man:

"No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Donne was constantly changing, yet keeping some of himself through all these changes. As the author explains it: "Donne felt obliged to keep reforming, accepting the pressures of the moment while fighting to preserve something essential about himself, something he could call his own soul." He grew up a Catholic, raised to be a lawyer to hide his Catholicism behind his career. He had a stint as a buccaneer, helping to fight the Spanish. He was a bit of a player too, as recorded plainly in his early poetry. He was a hopeless romantic, defying social norms by marrying the young Ann More without her father's approval, losing his job as a secretary in the administration. For several years, he tried to secure a government position by sucking up and making friends, but his colored past was still held against him. Eventually, he finally gave in to the king's desire for him to become a man of the cloth, and became a priest.

I think there is a lot that we can learn from Donne in our own day.

[Brian Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was first exposed to Donne's writing in high school, and explored it deeper as an English major, I was struck, as I still am, by how taut, dense, and intricate his syntax is. Nobody that I can think of in the history of English verse, excepting sections of Shakespeare, precisely and concisely expresses intricate and profound thought as well as Donne. The "conceits" as he would have termed it, meaning the associations that Donne makes between love and spirituality, are sublime. One simply has to look at his early songs and sonnets to see this is so; in fact, these works alone guarantee Donne a place among the supreme English poets of all time.

But then I learned about another John Donne, one that became the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and I struggled to reconcile the contradiction in that statement. Here was a man who rose to the level of one of the most respected clergymen in England in the 1620s, whose most famous poems are about the irreconcilable association of physical and sexual love with transcendentalism of the flesh. Those early poems are downright erotic. In fact, Donne was ashamed of those early poems and never published them in his lifetime. Some after his death would denounce them as filthy (don't forget that upon his death in 1631, puritanism was about to control England for the next 30 years). How could a poet whose sensuality is perhaps only matched by Pablo Neruda be one of the most revered clergymen of English history, buried in St. Paul's as a revered religious figure?

The beauty of Stubbs's book is that he is able to reconcile these contradictions in a lively, compelling, and compulsively readable prose style. I'm not sure that I have read a book that intricately discusses religious matters and beliefs in such a satisfying way. Stubbs takes the bare facts of Donne's life and is able to thread the narrative with just the right quotes from the works at the right moment, as well as cohesive accounts of ludicrously complicated political and historical events, in a way that illuminates Donne's life and loves and concerns. As with all of the best biographies, I felt that I was inside Donne's mind and knew his thoughts. While this may not be as difficult with his youth, when he grew from a young rapscallion that fought at sea and seduced young women into a secretary of the royal court, it becomes commendable when the biography moves from his loving marriage to his wife Anne and the interior reconcilement of Donne's interior spiritual life. The movement of England from a spiritual life of Catholicism to Protestantism is one of the most complicated movements in history, where most citizens truly felt a combination of allegiances. This was no less true for John Donne. Raised a Catholic, with a mother who died only months before him who never renounced her faith, and with ancestors who in fact died for their beliefs, Donne eventually renounced that faith to become a courtier of sorts and the Protestant Dean of Paul's for the last decade of his life. Stubbs precisely traces the contradictions and the equivocations inherent for Donne and many other similar believers at the time, as well as sets the ground work for the eventual Civil War that was partially based on those fervent religious beliefs.

John Donne's life was a constant reformation of his own soul: from sensualist, to survivalist, to loving husband, to secretary and social climber, to sermonizer. Stubbs's superb biography accurately traces all of these guises, and will remain the primary biography of Donne for years to come.

[Busyknitter · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is a biography of John Donne who as well as being one of the greatest poets the English Language has produced, lived, survived, faltered and prospered through the English Reformation.

It’s there anything this man did not do? He was the young Catholic student, attending both Oxford and Cambridge under the radar of the Elizabethan persecution. He was a law student, putting himself about town (in every possible way). He was the careerist administrator in Government, the gentleman soldier heading off with the Earl of Essex to the sack of Cadiz, the lovelorn youth with insufficient prospects eloping with his employer’s niece, the exile from influence forced to earn a living by accompanying rich young men on their Grand Tour, and finally the respected clergyman and Dean of St. Paul’s.

This is a fascinating book. I don’t pretend to know much about metaphysical poetry, so can’t really comment on how much insight is given to Donne’s creative life. But as a gallop through the life and times of someone who lived through such a tumultuous period of our history, is definitely a recommend.

(My one gripe is that I wish they had modernised the spelling where Donne’s writing is directly quoted. I found it distracting and annoying)

[Katedurie50 · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times as knotty and complex as the man, so quite a dense, tough read. I liked the way it drew the poems into biographical milestones and features, and its very strong sense of the social and political context. Donne changed so many times - from proscribed Catholic to establishment Anglican; from libertine to married man, fathering pretty much a child a year, to widower, half relieved , half grief-stricken; from volunteer soldier to secretary to being largely impoverished to Dean of St Paul's. People were enthralled by his sermons - the longest lasted two and a half hours - for the mix of intellectual chewiness, brilliant rhetoric and moments of heart-stopping feeling. The poems of course offer much teh sam epleausres and challenges.

[Mary Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having taught John Donne's works to college sophomores for many years, I was really interested in reading this biography. It is a slow reading since it is full of so much history, philosophy, politics and religion, along with the personal aspects of Donne's life. He was a man of constant change and also a desire to protect his genuine self. He moved from being a jaunty, roguish young gentleman to being a churchman in charge of st. Paul's Cathedral in London. The cultural, moral, political and intellectual dilemmas of his time provided constant challenges to him. This is a comprehensive look at a great English writer and person. A wonderful read for someone interested in Donne and his times.

[Seath Tankard crook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a couple of books on Donne but this is the best. What's great about it is Stubbs' ability to bring 17th century London to life. London was, in many respects, the great love of Donne's life so the detail here really helps to understand his outlook on life. Stubbs is generous as well to Donne's gloom and cynicism, contextualising his life against political and religious turbulence as well as the many personal griefs he had to contend with.

The Donne we get here is not the intellectual sourpuss often assumed, but a highly sensitive, ambitious, intelligent man who managed to succeed spectacularly despite the many obstacles he faced.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent read though be warned at times a very dense one. It almost includes too much minuatie if that's possible in a biography. Although Donne himself is interesting, especially early years Donne, it's the capturing of the times he lived in that becomes the real star. The court politics, the personalities that come and go, world events, all provide the substance here.
Donne himself is a hard one to fully grasp, as his early and later years seem to be lived by 2 different people. Risque poet and renowned preacher? Never the twain should meet.
Well written in an easily digestible style, this is a solid biography and solid late 16th/early 17th history book. Recommended

[Eleni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once I got past the style issues (he uses snippets of Donne's poetry to explicate moments of Donne's life out of context and it's a bit too "cutesy" for me in the opening chapters), I found that what Stubbs did well was flesh out the lives of those around Donne well. I prefer Edwards' biography for details about Donne's life and ideas and Stubbs' for historical context.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eminently readable book about a highly interesting individual. Both the form and the content are of the highest quality, and I've already booked another biography by the same author. I do have one question, though: what is Stubbs doing at a non-world-class institution like my faculty? I'm sure that with work like this he'd find the gates of many an ivy-league school wide open.

[Zandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, scholarly, readable biography of a brilliant man. My only reservation is that Donne is presented as being a perfectly rational (modern) man, while sometimes I felt he might have been motivated by deeply irrational and conflicting drives and desires.

[Allegra Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Donne had a great life and he was a great poet, and Stubbs does him justice. The discussion of Donne's conversion is particularly fine. Stubbs explores every dimension--theological, political, personal.

[Rob Markley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't have much appreciation for poetry and didn't expect to like this as much as I did. This shows what a true Christian could be like in time of the Stuarts. Great insight

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent example of literary biography done well.

[Lonnie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genuinely fascinating.

[Dinah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved history.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it's probably quite natural to hope that the biography of a writer will pay substantial attention to its subject's work, this is very much "John Donne: Life" rather than "Mind and Art". On those terms, John Donne: The Reformed Soul is a great success, striking almost a perfect balance between the scholarly and the readable. Although a few of the anecdotes feel a little forced-in, John Stubbs handles both personal and historical detail with great skill, knowing just how much information to introduce, and when to do so; the book is never less than clear, and always fluent. Stubbs obviously likes Donne (as a man), and wants us to like him; and this leads to an appealing and fairly convincing (unless you are a Thomas More, perhaps) central argument that Donne's political and religious pragmatism - he comes across as a man who trod very carefully, whether in Parliament or in the pulpit - is ultimately a lived version of his deepest spiritual and intellectual conviction that "I am involved in mankind".

For all its strengths, this book is not an in-depth analysis of Donne's poetry such as that found in, for example, John Carey's John Donne, Life, Mind, and Art. Lovers of the "Songs and Sonnets" and "Holy Sonnets" will probably not find fresh insights here; but Stubbs's book may well entice readers to look more closely at Donne's satires, elegies, verse letters, and occasional poems.

One minor quibble: the Norton edition that I read had no illustrations other than its use of the 1595 portrait on the cover. This is a missed opportunity: although it is easy to find such images online these days, pictures of, say, old St Paul's or Donne's funeral portrait and memorial statue would have greatly enhanced the book.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never again.