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Clare: A Novel
'I never bury my face in a lilac flower without thinking of him. That smell, that heavy scent of being lost inside the summer, is his smell . . . I still expect, when I pass a lilac hedge, to meet him walking in the lane, to hear him singing some rude verse and laughing to himself.'
John Clare - 'the finest naturalist of all Britain's major poets' - was born two hundred years ago in Helpston village, Northamptonshire. His visionary closeness to nature, the harshness of his life as an agricultural labourer, the bewildering fame that followed the publication of his poems, his epilepsy and his obsessive love for a childhood friend, Mary Joyce, proved too much for his overstrung spirit and he spent the closing decades of his life in a mental asylum.
In this intensely lyrical new novel, spoken through the voices of Clare's womenfolk and of the dying Clare himself, John MacKenna brilliantly evokes the emotional life of one of England's most tragic and influential pastoral poets.
John Clare - 'the finest naturalist of all Britain's major poets' - was born two hundred years ago in Helpston village, Northamptonshire. His visionary closeness to nature, the harshness of his life as an agricultural labourer, the bewildering fame that followed the publication of his poems, his epilepsy and his obsessive love for a childhood friend, Mary Joyce, proved too much for his overstrung spirit and he spent the closing decades of his life in a mental asylum.
In this intensely lyrical new novel, spoken through the voices of Clare's womenfolk and of the dying Clare himself, John MacKenna brilliantly evokes the emotional life of one of England's most tragic and influential pastoral poets.
- GenresFiction
181 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 14, 2022
The language in this biography is beautiful and clever in becoming more of a novel using many narrators to bring the reader closer to the poet John Clare.
July 3, 2016
This book was written more than 20 years ago. The edition I have was re-issued by New Island in 2014 as part of their Modern Irish Classics series. I purchased it whilst attending an event in which the author talked about the book during the Listowel Writers' Week at the beginning of June this year (2016).
John Clare's life was extraordinary for someone of his time. With little formal education, he worked in various labouring jobs yet had four books of poetry published. Whilst still at school, he fell in love with a farmer's daughter whom he believed to be unattainable. She became a lifelong obsession. He suffered from epilepsy and spent the last 27 years of his life in institutions for the insane.
John MacKenna told his audience that his interest in the English poet began when a girlfriend gave the eighteen-year-old MacKenna a copy of Clare's poem I Am as a parting gift. Later he studied Clare at university.
His book is in five distinct parts, the first four as if told by each of the most important women in his life: his sister, his wife, his daughter, and a fictional woman meant to represent the several patrons who supported him at various stages of his literary life. The final part takes the form of a love letter, such as might have been written shortly before his death, addressed to his long deceased childhood love. The whole is written in the kind of lyrical language worthy of a nineteenth century poet whose work has been described as “some of the most beautiful poetry in the English language”.
There is tenderness in the way the relationships between Clare and each of the four women are described in first person by each in turn. At the same time, no punches are pulled in their assessment of his weaknesses as well as his strengths and the way his dedication to his art and his obsession with the unattainable Mary affected their lives.
Like Clare's poetry, the various accounts contain explicit sexual references which make this book unsuitable for adolescents who might wish to study the life of the poet. For the rest of us, reading it is a delightful experience which will make you want to discover – or re-discover – Clare's poetry for your self.
John Clare's life was extraordinary for someone of his time. With little formal education, he worked in various labouring jobs yet had four books of poetry published. Whilst still at school, he fell in love with a farmer's daughter whom he believed to be unattainable. She became a lifelong obsession. He suffered from epilepsy and spent the last 27 years of his life in institutions for the insane.
John MacKenna told his audience that his interest in the English poet began when a girlfriend gave the eighteen-year-old MacKenna a copy of Clare's poem I Am as a parting gift. Later he studied Clare at university.
His book is in five distinct parts, the first four as if told by each of the most important women in his life: his sister, his wife, his daughter, and a fictional woman meant to represent the several patrons who supported him at various stages of his literary life. The final part takes the form of a love letter, such as might have been written shortly before his death, addressed to his long deceased childhood love. The whole is written in the kind of lyrical language worthy of a nineteenth century poet whose work has been described as “some of the most beautiful poetry in the English language”.
There is tenderness in the way the relationships between Clare and each of the four women are described in first person by each in turn. At the same time, no punches are pulled in their assessment of his weaknesses as well as his strengths and the way his dedication to his art and his obsession with the unattainable Mary affected their lives.
Like Clare's poetry, the various accounts contain explicit sexual references which make this book unsuitable for adolescents who might wish to study the life of the poet. For the rest of us, reading it is a delightful experience which will make you want to discover – or re-discover – Clare's poetry for your self.
August 1, 2016
I read Clare because having loved Miss Emily by Nuala O'Connor (a memorable novel about Emily Dickinson) I asked her whether she knew any other novels about poets. She's such a fine writer that I knew, when she recommended this one, that it wouldn't disappoint. No Amazon check necessary. This is a beautiful book, one I appreciated more and more with each chapter - until I felt devastated long before the end. In it, Mackenna captures the essence of the poet and makes of him a big, compelling character. He also substantiates, with poetic simplicity, the natural world Clare loved. And perhaps most of all, as a writer, I admire the skill with which he has adopted a convincing range of different voices in order to present Clare from the perspective of those closest to him. The novel is broader, deeper and more powerful for this structure but it takes courage, care and finely tuned intuition to succeed so flawlessly. Respect! I belong to a Poetry Reading Group and will recommend this - and Miss Emily - to everyone in it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews