Fiery Heart: The First Life of Leigh Hunt

by Nicholas Roe

Leigh Hunt is the forgotten giant of English Romanticism. The man Virginia Woolf called the “spiritual grandfather” of the modern world was descended from black Caribbeans and grew up a child of the American and French Revolutions. A poet and radical journalist, he threw off the shackles of the old order and campaigned tirelessly for Irish freedom and the abolition of slavery. Unwilling to view the Prince of Wales as an “Adonis in Loveliness,” Hunt was jailed for a “diabolical libel” that presented the prince as he was: a corpulent 50-year-old, sodden with drink and drugs. In prison, Hunt drew the homage of Lord Byron, and discovered the Romantic geniuses Keats and Shelley. Hunt’s own poetry glows with the sexual frankness that characterized all his relationships. Written with flair and brilliant imaginative insight, Fiery Heart is a sparkling portrait of Leigh Hunt and the English Romantics.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roe strains too hard to find layers of significance in Hunt's poetry and essays (plus I get the sense the classical references go over his head a little) and doesn't completely convince me that Hunt was having an emotional affair with his sister-in-law. I also feel like there's scope to say much more about Hunt's mental illness, his sexual/relationship orientation (this book hints at his being bisexual and polyamorous, but leaves it there), and how his crush on Shelley affected his political/moral convictions - not in this book necessarily, as it's long and detailed already, and is beginning to wind down by the time Shelley appears, but I'd love to see someone talk about these things.

What this book does really well, however, is set Hunt in the political and cultural context of his time, and affirm what an attractive character he was -- warm, generous, loyal, compassionate and possessed of incredible moral determination and courage. It'll also send you straight out to find those chatty, vivid, endearing, beautifully observed essays -- when oh when will Penguin or Oxford World's Classics publish a selection???? He really absolutely deserves it.

[Brian Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leigh Hunt is typically a supporting player in the lives of the poets, specifically Shelley and Keats. He often features pejoratively in the balance, somebody who made these poets' lives practically possible via publication, but who never achieved that success for himself.

Nicholas Roe, thankfully, redresses that balance here with a measured yet highly enjoyable reading of Hunt's own life. Leigh Hunt is one of those literary figures that was far more famous in his lifetime than ours, and while I still wouldn't place his literary achievement quite in the Pantheon, I would place this work in the literary biography - Romanticism section archive as very valuable. I was obsessed with it when I read it in 2005 and it still maintains a treasured place in my personal library. f you want more insight into the poetic and publishing era of the age of Second Generation British Romanticism, this book will certainly complete that picture.

[Magda Michielsens]

Ik las een e-versie.
Leigh Hunt is vandaag minder bekend dan Percy Shelley, Lord Byron of Mary Shelley.
Hij was nochtans een hoeksteen van de vriendengroep die Daisy Hay beschrijft als The Young Romantics.
Hij was journalist, essayist en dichter.

Actueel is dat hij een overtuigd strijder was voor de vrije meningsuiting. Voor zijn kritiek op de Regency zat hij 2 jaar in de gevangenis. Hij heeft van die tijd een heel vruchtbare en aangename periode gemaakt, maar dat verandert niets aan het feit dat hij opgesloten zat voor zijn mening.

Een aanrader, als men de grote namen eens van een andere invalshoek wil bekijken.

[Nathalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), poet and radical journalist, descended from black Caribbeans, imprisoned for articles on the King and enjoyed the company and homage of writers like Lord Byron and Shelley.