John Keats

by Robert Gittings

This sensitive and brilliant book, winner of the WH Smith Literary Award, is the most comprehensive life of Keats available. One of the great figures of Romanticism, Keats poured his tragically short and troubled life into creating poetry: in Robert Gittings's words, "With no other poet are the life and the works so closely linked". He offers insights into Keats's family background, his financial difficulties, illnesses and unhappy love affair with Fanny Brawne, interpreting evrey poem in the context of Keats's experience. Meticulously researched using original sources, this is the most complete picture of Keats that has ever appeared.

Contents:
Foreword
Prologue to Biography
Apprentice Years
Years of Trial
The Living Year
The Last Year
Epilogue to Life
Appendices:
The Jennings & Sweetinburgh Families
Keats' Father
Keats & Venereal Disease
Keats' Use of Bawdy
Index

Genres: Biography, Poetry, 19th Century, Literature, British Literature, Biography Memoir, 20th Century

669 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Robert William Victor Gittings, CBE, was an English writer, biographer, BBC Radio producer, playwright and minor poet.

Reviews

[Francesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given the mythology surrounding Keats' life story as the archetypal 'allegory of a poet's life', Robert Gittings' task at the outset of this biography is no minor feat. Not only does Gittings provide fresh, clear and convincing circumstantial information to clear up the inaccuracies that have built up over 200 years of re-telling, distortion and conjecture, his sensitivity to Keats' emotional nature and the exact interweaving of poetry and life - 'With no other poet are the life and the works so closely linked', he claims, and thus substitutes the image of Keats the ethereal dreamer for that of a depth-charged realist - raises this book to the very heights of excellence. The usual picture of the tragic poet, killed by negative reviews, is laughable even from the flimsiest reading of a Keats' Selected, given his interest in what may be called 'vulgar verse', Cockney rhymes, and lengthy epics, not to mention the unique and advanced poetic theories of his letters. In the mirror of this biography Keats can be recognised as a fully-rounded individual for the first time. Gittings emphasises Keats' religious and spiritual development - the doctrine of soul-making not being one I had encountered before in my years of studying Keats - and the philosophy contained in his poetry, as formed by Milton, Wordsworth, Shakespeare and Burton. He thus puts to rest the idea that his verse is purely sensuous, particularly by his masterful comparison of the two versions of 'Hyperion'. The passion and labour that went into this book is measurable by its length - 681 pages in paperback - and only chronicling 25 years. As ever with Keats, the question 'what if' can only be asked if one disregards the value of such intensity. Like its subject, this book makes the most of every minute. Finishing this book is a great sadness and a joy, for while the sorrow of Keats' life story would arouse compassion in any poet, this book sends one back to the work for a fresh appraisal of the overlooked and unread aspects of his oeuvre - those which, ironically, prove his longevity. This book is a gift. I would recommend it unreservedly to all poets.

[Benjamin Clow · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s odd to start a book review talking about oneself, but as context, I’d like to say that I’ve spent quite a bit of time with John Keats. I discovered him in undergrad class, and bought a collection of his letters from the Shakespeare bookshop in Paris, a stone throw away from Notre Dame. I remember being disappointed, thinking I was buying a book on his poetry, but my friend assured me that Keats’s letters were just as good as his poems, maybe even better. And yeah, they were right. So struck was I by the letters that I did my masters on them. And having submitted my thesis, I needed a break from him. I didn’t touch a Keats book in well over a year and a half. And now I’m back. And I must say. Gitting’s biography reminded me what drew me to Keats in the first place. And it wasn’t his poetry, as beautiful and breath-taking some of his lines were. It wasn’t his wonderfully descriptive and entertaining letters, brimming with life and warmth themselves, which he wrote to his friends and family, but it was him. His person. He was the Byronic hero. The fire that lit early and died out before suppertime.
Best biography of Keats I have ever read. Gittings does not try to impress with “new” information, inaccurate or anti-historical speculations. He did not try to eclipse Keats and add his clever little theories. Nor does he “skin Keats alive” whatever that means, as one biographer was praised for doing. He provides the facts in a compassionate and clear tone, and allows Keats’s life story to tell itself. A boy acquainted with tragedy from an early age. His father died falling off his horse. His mother died of tuberculosis. His brother died of tuberculosis. He left the medical world to live in poverty and write poetry that was ridiculed by the press and undersold in the bookstores. But he believed he had a gift, and he was supported by a tempest of literary and artistic geniuses who fought, and socialised and were loyal to him more than any friends I’ve read about in books. And of course he was the glue that stuck them together. His romance with Fanny Brawne is told well here, and the final few chapters before his death at the age of 25 is heartbreaking.
“The vital force behind all his verse was his power to apply imagination to every aspect of life, so that the result far transcended its origins. This is why no part of Keats’s life should be neglected, and every incident, once truly recorded, may have immense value in interpreting his poetry. With no other poet are the life and the works so closely linked.”
I appreciated Gittings’s thoughtful interpretations of Keats’s poetry, and his clever examples of how Keats’s reading (Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Spenser) affected his verse.
Perfect read.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Story of John Keats, by Robert Gittings and Jo Manton

A fascinating but sobering read on the life of John Keats. This story is written much like a narrative, which I really enjoyed. I was surprised at the details of his life that were offered, though I'm sure the author took liberties with some parts of this book for the sake of storytelling (e.g. dialogue, description details, etc.) while building on the main story.

Full of life and with a passion for poetry, Keats made friends easily, loved fully, possessed a great deal of humor and courage, was sympathetic to others' situations, fiercely loyal to his family, and embraced a love of justice, Shakespeare, and playgoing.

[F · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I was finishing my professor saw me and recommended the Andrew Motion bio. WELL. I have several thoughts: Gittings is sexist, no surprises here. Not quite unrelated, he hints at Keats's almost disturbing relationship/regard to women. I'd like more insight into that. This bio was at times difficult to follow, but overall it provides a good overview and many details. Half of it is textual analysis of his poetry, integrated into the life story. I look forward to reading Keats's ketters now (edited by Gittings too).

[Rosy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book on my perhaps-daft Shelfari reading list that has made me thankful for the list. I bought this book, as required, at the very start of my college days, and I have never read it until now, thirty years later. It was extremely dry and tedious to start with, but I persevered as I tend to do (must cross off list!), and the further along I went the more I was drawn into Keats' world, Gittings' insights--and the poetry. The poetry! Some of the poems I read right after reading about their conception and composition, and some of those I had not seen for thirty-plus years (since Sixth Form)--what a shock when the words sounded instantly and thoroughly familiar in my head. How much better I must have known some of them than I'd been thinking I had. And although I do not have the kind of memory that can bring those words to mind and tongue, there they were. It was amazing. And after that, of course, the coughing of blood, Fanny, and death in Rome. A rich experience. I'm so glad I bothered. For all that, it gets 4 stars although I'm sure that life is far too short for me ever to read it again. I did notice that Andrew Motion wrote one...

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've given this book 4 stars and not 5 because I think Gittings' opinion is hampered by it's date of publication. It reads like a strict authoritarian with no romantic heart has been forced to write a semi-scathing review of the life and times of John Keats. I couldn't be emotionally involved in this no matter how strongly felt about the subject. I find it's high praise quite astonishing really. Gittings' opinions come across somewhat egotistical at times with little disregard for the achievements attained by Keats. It was useful to criticism in my dissertation but I didn't enjoy reading it.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent biography of what was after all a fairy short life. Interesting for the insights it casts on the composition of the poems. Interesting that he had read Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy"...

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

"That which is creative must create itself."

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than the later one by Andrew Motion. I was quite emotionally involved in his last journey to Rome and sad, sad death. A tragic life in so many ways but at least we have the Odes.

[agb · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than you ever needed to know about John Keats