The Life of Robert Burns

Canongate Classics #10

by Catherine Carswell

First published in 1930 to an unprecedented storm of protest, Catherine Carswell's The Life of Robert Burns remains the standard work on its subject. Carswell deliberately shakes the image of Burns as a romantic hero - exposing the sexual misdemeanours, drinking bouts and waywardness that other, more reverential, biographies choose to overlook. Catherine Carswell's real achievement is to bring alive the personality of a great passionate, hard-living, generous, melancholic, morbid and triumphant . . . the very archetype of the supreme creative artist.

Genres: Biography

415 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Catherine Roxburgh Carswell (née Macfarlane) was a Scottish author, biographer and journalist, and a contributor to the Scottish Renaissance. Her work is considered an integral part of Scottish women's writing of the early 20th century.

The daughter of a Glasgow merchant, Carswell was educated at the Park School. From 1901 to 1903 she attended classes in English Literature at Glasgow University. She went on to study music at the Schumann Conservatorium in Frankfurt am Main before taking up employment as reviewer and dramatic critic at the Glasgow Herald from 1907 until 1915. She was subsequently an assistant theatre critic for the Observer.

Carswell's first marriage, to Herbert Jackson in 1903, was annulled in 1908, and in 1915 she married Donald Carswell. Her first novel, Open the Door, was published in 1920, followed in 1922 by The Camomile. She developed a particular interest in the life and work of Robert Burns, publishing her celebrated The Life of Robert Burns in 1930: her unsentimental account of his life upset many Burns traditionalists. She was a close friend of DH Lawrence, and in 1932 she published The Savage Pilgrimage: a Narrative of DH Lawrence.

Reviews

[Gabriel Rutherford · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive view of Burns which utterly dispels the romantic myths around him - we see Burns as a tragic figure here more than anything else, someone immensely gifted but unable to take advantage of those gifts.

[Zachary Ngow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reputedly one of the more important biographies of Burns (but the first one I've read). A quite controversial book at the time, but I don't know how it's perceived now.

I have the Canongate Classics Edition, which is furnished on the front cover with a face from the painting 'Wisdom and Folly' by the Scottish painter Lys Hansen. The face is grey-purple, has a thick nose, closed lips and closed eyes with dripping tears.

This biography is split into five sections. 'Prelude' covers the journey his hardworking father William Burnes took from Kincardine (north-east, not the town near Falkirk) through Edinburgh into Ayrshire. He married Agnes, and in the second section 'Father and Son' Robert was born. The tough but not unsentimental upbringing of Robert involved a lot of farm work, but through this he developed a taste for literature and poetry. He sings in the fields and thinks of girls. Throughout his life he meets many muses.

With the death of his father, Robert took responsibility for the farm 'Mossgiel'. But he really wanted to be a poet. Eventually, through much philandering and tragedy, he had a reputation as a poet. He moved to 'Edinburgh', into a world of aristocrats. Somewhere there he lost hope and thought about moving to Jamaica. Eventually he took on a different farm in 'Dumfries' and became a taxman. He lived out the rest of his life avoiding persecution for his radical views (by not speaking them) and raising his family. Unfortunately, like his father, he died too young.

This book has the reputation of tarring Robert's image but obviously that is just the reaction of stuffy Burns' clubs. Burns here is a tragic hero (as the cover suggests). He struggles with many of the decisions he makes, and in his later years took on the same role his father did. Sometimes he suffers from cowardice, and he is definitely a womanizer. Yet I felt more sympathetic to him here than less.

There are references to his poetry and composition of it, but this is not the subject of the book. The book is about his life, but also about the lives of everyone around him. Sometimes I found this dull, as I didn't care about so and so that he associated with, but other times it was quite interesting. Many of these people are the men who he drank with and helped finance him, but the women in his life stood out more. He had many muses throughout his life, Highland Mary, Clarinda, and most importantly Jean Armour.

The description of the social climate, such as about radicalism, New Lights, and the French Revolution was very interesting.

The book opens with a dedication to the authors second husband Donald Carswell and to her friend D. H. Lawrence. As is said in the introduction, he himself briefly worked on a novel about Burns, and later encouraged Catherine about this biography.

It's obvious how much impact Lawrence had on this book. It's interesting how similar his life was in many ways to Burns. I wonder if his relationship to his wife Frieda influenced how Catherine Carswell wrote of Burns' women? I am excited to read her biography of Lawrence next.

Also, I visited Scotland for the first time earlier this year, and read this on a train from Glasgow to Inverness, Inverness to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to London, getting halfway through the book and then forgot about it for a couple months before finishing it today. The experience of seeing Scotland may have helped a bit to understand it but really things have changed so much. I did see some very interesting exhibits on him though, like how he is celebrated by socialists worldwide, and seeing some of his belongings and the first Kilmarnock edition in Kilmarnock. Also a few statues of him, including him covered in pigeonshit outside a rundown mall named for him in Kilmarnock.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling biography, with a narrative which is rich in fascinating detail but still moves at a fair clip. Never a dull moment in the life of our Scots’ Bard: “his aspect, his force, his talk, his immense variety of moods, in all of which he radiated life.”

[John McCaskey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read this 1930 book. Still great. Lots of information about Burns, but dispels a lot of myths. When it was published she received lots of hate mail (including a bullet through the post). A lot of Scots like the romantic tales, and do not want to be dealing with facts.