William Wordsworth: A Life

by Stephen Gill

At the age of twenty-eight, William Wordsworth had neither a settled income nor the professional qualifications needed to secure one. He had no home, and he could not support the illegitimate child he had fathered during an impetuous love affair in France. The total sum of his achievements since he had left Cambridge consisted of one slim, anonymously issued volume of Lyrical Ballads. Recognition came slowly, but by age seventy, he was revered as a cultural icon, the Poet Laureate of England, and the most celebrated native of the Lake Country.
Based on an intimate knowledge of the poet's manuscripts, on a fresh assessment of contemporary records, and a careful analysis of a wealth of new research, this vividly written volume presents the first serious biography of Wordsworth to appear in over twenty-five years. Stephen Gill, a leading authority on Wordsworth, reveals that, in many ways, this giant of English literature led a heroic life. Despite critical condemnation, numbing blows from the death of friends and family, including three of his own children, and his inability to earn a living as a writer in his early years, his dedication to his art did not waver. Moreover, Gill corrects the image of the older Wordsworth as a stodgy betrayer of his radical youth. While his politics certainly did change, and his poetic power waned from 1799 almost to his death in 1850, Wordsworth single-mindedly shaped his own life in submission to a power of imagination whose importance he never doubted.
Offering unparalleled insight into Wordsworth's poetic achievement, Gill illuminates what was most essential to Wordsworth his life as a writer.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Poetry, History, Romanticism

552 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Stephen Gill is a professor of English literature at Oxford University, a fellow of Lincoln College, and editor of Selected Poems by William Wordsworth

Reviews

[Richard Epstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

The principal problem with biographies of Wordsworth is that they're all about Wordsworth's life. You can't make that interesting. Just can't be done. I prefer Leslie Stephen's William Wordsworth - A Short Biography because, well, it's shorter.

[Brian Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long considered the best biography on Wordsworth, it's hard to disagree. He may be the least fascinating personally of the Romantic poets (although there is plenty for a psychologist to unpack if they read between the lines), but his impact was real. 423 pages for an 80 year life, although it is very easy and acceptable to argue that his significant poetic life ended halfway through. Nonetheless, a balanced and perceptive life account which also, not to be dismissed, is not too harsh on Coleridge as most Wordsworthians tend to be.

I do suspect though that modern sensibilities will see a touch of the misogynistic in his personal life, a man whose sister lived with him unmarried throughout his life, utterly devoted to making his dreams come true, a wife who did the same along with her unmarried sister, and a daughter who married rather late who did the same. It appears Wordsworth loved being doted on by women, which makes it doubly ironic that poor Coleridge could never achieve the same and was indeed thwarted by Wordsworth. Still, a good bio by a leading scholar of Wordsworth.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comprehensive. Turgid.

[Adam Tierney-Eliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the question is "what is the best biography of William Wordsworth" this would have gotten five stars. Since that isn't the question it gets a still-respectable four stars. It is simply a whole lot of Wordsworth. There are some very interesting descriptions of his creative process as well as plenty of background and context for the poems and the man, himself. After a while, though, one can get lost in all the letters back and forth about who hurt whose feelings--man, these romantics are sensitive...

Still, I enjoyed it. I will keep it and use it as a reference book as I really enjoy reading Wordsworth.