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Inventing Edward Lear
“ Inventing Edward Lear is an exceptional, valuable, original study, presenting new materials on aspects of Lear’s life and work.”
―Jenny Uglow, author of Mr. Lear and The Lunar Men
Edward Lear wrote some of the best-loved poems in English, including “The Owl and the Pussycat,” but the father of nonsense was far more than a poet. He was a naturalist, a brilliant landscape painter, an experimental travel writer, and an accomplished composer. Sara Lodge presents the fullest account yet of Lear’s passionate engagement in the intellectual, social, and cultural life of his times.
Lear had a difficult start in life. He was epileptic, asthmatic, and depressive, but even as a child a consummate performer who projected himself into others’ affections. He became, by John James Audubon’s estimate, one of the greatest ornithological artists of the age. Queen Victoria―an admirer―chose him to be her painting teacher. He popularized the limerick, set Tennyson’s verse to music, and opened fresh doors for children and adults to share fantasies of magical escape. Lodge draws on diaries, letters, and new archival sources to paint a vivid picture of Lear that explores his musical influences, his religious nonconformity, his relationship with the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and the connections between his scientific and artistic work. He invented himself as a awkward but funny, absurdly sympathetic. In Lodge’s hands, Lear emerges as a dynamic and irreverent polymath whose conversation continues to draw us in.
Inventing Edward Lear is an original and moving account of one of the most intriguing and creative of all Victorians.
―Jenny Uglow, author of Mr. Lear and The Lunar Men
Edward Lear wrote some of the best-loved poems in English, including “The Owl and the Pussycat,” but the father of nonsense was far more than a poet. He was a naturalist, a brilliant landscape painter, an experimental travel writer, and an accomplished composer. Sara Lodge presents the fullest account yet of Lear’s passionate engagement in the intellectual, social, and cultural life of his times.
Lear had a difficult start in life. He was epileptic, asthmatic, and depressive, but even as a child a consummate performer who projected himself into others’ affections. He became, by John James Audubon’s estimate, one of the greatest ornithological artists of the age. Queen Victoria―an admirer―chose him to be her painting teacher. He popularized the limerick, set Tennyson’s verse to music, and opened fresh doors for children and adults to share fantasies of magical escape. Lodge draws on diaries, letters, and new archival sources to paint a vivid picture of Lear that explores his musical influences, his religious nonconformity, his relationship with the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and the connections between his scientific and artistic work. He invented himself as a awkward but funny, absurdly sympathetic. In Lodge’s hands, Lear emerges as a dynamic and irreverent polymath whose conversation continues to draw us in.
Inventing Edward Lear is an original and moving account of one of the most intriguing and creative of all Victorians.
- GenresNonfictionBiography
448 pages, Hardcover
Published November 30, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 23, 2019
I’ve always had an interest in Victorian-era literature, but having been raised in the States, this book was my first encounter with Edward Lear. Dr. Sara Lodge’s painstakingly researched and sensitively written critical work on the person and persona of Edward Lear was a delight to read. It is not a typical piece of literary criticism, but only in the best of ways. Lodge’s interdisciplinary approach to the rich body of Lear’s artistic work affords her subject due recognition not merely as a writer of children’s nonsense verse, but as a highly adept musician, natural historian, zoological artist, landscape painter, early cartoonist, religious nonconformist, diarist, and writer of intriguing letters to those in his elite circle of acquaintances — Lear was a true polymath, and in Lodge’s book, both his genius and his oddities shine.
While Inventing Edward Lear offers interesting biographical facts and compelling close readings, its use of mixed media to convey its message mirrors Lear’s own multidimensional forms of self-expression and is undoubtedly one of the book’s most significant contributions to its critical field. One of its most distinctive features is the opportunity it provides readers to listen to pieces of music composed or sung by Lear, all of which are relevant to the book’s critical discussion (see edwardlearsmusic.com). Quality color images of Lear’s visual artwork similarly enhance the reader’s experience. Furthermore, Lodge’s knowledge of Lear is encyclopedic, and the book contains a wealth of newly unearthed archival sources that inform its analysis. I felt that by reading it, I learned not just about Mr. Edward Lear, but about the colorful zeitgeist of the nineteenth century.
Lodge acknowledges in the book’s introduction that the academic discussion of Lear may seem like “taking a sledgehammer to a soufflé” — doesn’t it somehow seem sacrilege to subject a beloved children’s writer like Lear to serious scholarly criticism? But she goes on to suggest that doing so does not necessarily detract from the deliciousness of the soufflé. The rest of the book backs this premise. Scrutinizing favorite pieces of literature under the microscope of critical analysis threatens to compromise its magic, its emotive impact, and the simple purity of its enjoyment. I found, though, and much to my delight, that Lodge’s readings of Lear’s works have a liberating rather than constricting effect; instead of shutting down avenues of meaning through a more narrow-minded approach, it seemed to open the texts up to a variety of interpretive possibilities. This was partly accomplished by looking at texts through lenses traditionally associated with other forms of art — for example, by considering the visual art of the Pre-Raphaelites as a kind of poetry and by appreciating “word-paintings” as the art of poetry — and also by readily admitting the subjectivity inherent to nonsense. Such critical flexibility is especially important when applied to a “richly associative magpie mind” like Lear’s (340).
In addition, Lodge’s study of Lear struck me, as a piece of writing itself, as stylistically and tonally well-suited to its primary texts. Lodge produces highly technically sophisticated points of scholarly consideration appropriate to the corresponding (but frequently overlooked) sophistication of Lear’s verse. But like Lear, Lodge as critic sometimes adopts a playful, jesting tone and engages in wordplay, which made the book more engaging for me as a reader. Inventing Edward Lear, simply put, has a lot of heart. This is probably how the book succeeds in enhancing rather than detracting from the simple joys of Lear’s poetry. And as Lodge points out in her introduction, the role of emotion when reading Lear should not be underestimated. Its acknowledgement is crucial if readers hope to fully appreciate the convoluted yet fascinating relationship between the “real” Edward Lear and Edward Lear as a self-invented literary persona (a topic explored in-depth in the book’s final chapter). Absurdity does, as Lodge notes, safely allow for self-disclosure, exploring the fantasy of being wholly understood in spite of one’s quirks (332, 349). On a personal note, I found Lodge’s reading of “The Quangle Wangle’s Hat” to be especially moving.
As someone who didn’t grow up with Lear, Inventing Edward Lear was an enjoyable and informative read that offered a vivid portrait of both Lear and his Victorian age — both so vulnerable to overly simplified interpretations, but both adroitly and sensitively handled in this uniquely multidisciplinary critical work. I would recommend this book most highly to anyone wanting to enter Lear’s and his characters’ timeless, parallel realms of nonsense.
While Inventing Edward Lear offers interesting biographical facts and compelling close readings, its use of mixed media to convey its message mirrors Lear’s own multidimensional forms of self-expression and is undoubtedly one of the book’s most significant contributions to its critical field. One of its most distinctive features is the opportunity it provides readers to listen to pieces of music composed or sung by Lear, all of which are relevant to the book’s critical discussion (see edwardlearsmusic.com). Quality color images of Lear’s visual artwork similarly enhance the reader’s experience. Furthermore, Lodge’s knowledge of Lear is encyclopedic, and the book contains a wealth of newly unearthed archival sources that inform its analysis. I felt that by reading it, I learned not just about Mr. Edward Lear, but about the colorful zeitgeist of the nineteenth century.
Lodge acknowledges in the book’s introduction that the academic discussion of Lear may seem like “taking a sledgehammer to a soufflé” — doesn’t it somehow seem sacrilege to subject a beloved children’s writer like Lear to serious scholarly criticism? But she goes on to suggest that doing so does not necessarily detract from the deliciousness of the soufflé. The rest of the book backs this premise. Scrutinizing favorite pieces of literature under the microscope of critical analysis threatens to compromise its magic, its emotive impact, and the simple purity of its enjoyment. I found, though, and much to my delight, that Lodge’s readings of Lear’s works have a liberating rather than constricting effect; instead of shutting down avenues of meaning through a more narrow-minded approach, it seemed to open the texts up to a variety of interpretive possibilities. This was partly accomplished by looking at texts through lenses traditionally associated with other forms of art — for example, by considering the visual art of the Pre-Raphaelites as a kind of poetry and by appreciating “word-paintings” as the art of poetry — and also by readily admitting the subjectivity inherent to nonsense. Such critical flexibility is especially important when applied to a “richly associative magpie mind” like Lear’s (340).
In addition, Lodge’s study of Lear struck me, as a piece of writing itself, as stylistically and tonally well-suited to its primary texts. Lodge produces highly technically sophisticated points of scholarly consideration appropriate to the corresponding (but frequently overlooked) sophistication of Lear’s verse. But like Lear, Lodge as critic sometimes adopts a playful, jesting tone and engages in wordplay, which made the book more engaging for me as a reader. Inventing Edward Lear, simply put, has a lot of heart. This is probably how the book succeeds in enhancing rather than detracting from the simple joys of Lear’s poetry. And as Lodge points out in her introduction, the role of emotion when reading Lear should not be underestimated. Its acknowledgement is crucial if readers hope to fully appreciate the convoluted yet fascinating relationship between the “real” Edward Lear and Edward Lear as a self-invented literary persona (a topic explored in-depth in the book’s final chapter). Absurdity does, as Lodge notes, safely allow for self-disclosure, exploring the fantasy of being wholly understood in spite of one’s quirks (332, 349). On a personal note, I found Lodge’s reading of “The Quangle Wangle’s Hat” to be especially moving.
As someone who didn’t grow up with Lear, Inventing Edward Lear was an enjoyable and informative read that offered a vivid portrait of both Lear and his Victorian age — both so vulnerable to overly simplified interpretations, but both adroitly and sensitively handled in this uniquely multidisciplinary critical work. I would recommend this book most highly to anyone wanting to enter Lear’s and his characters’ timeless, parallel realms of nonsense.
July 13, 2024
"Inventing Edward Lear" by Sara Lodge is an in-depth biography of Edward Lear, known for his famous poem "The Owl and the Pussycat." The book highlights Lear's multifaceted talents as a naturalist, landscape painter, travel writer, and composer. Despite facing numerous challenges such as epilepsy, asthma, and depression, Lear's artistic and intellectual contributions were significant. He became one of the greatest ornithological artists, was admired by Queen Victoria, and played a pivotal role in popularizing the limerick and setting Tennyson’s verses to music. Sara Lodge utilizes diaries, letters, and archival sources to explore Lear's influences, religious beliefs, connections with the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and the intersection of his scientific and artistic endeavors. This biography offers a comprehensive and vibrant portrayal of Lear as a dynamic and inventive figure of the Victorian era.
December 9, 2018
Vastly expanded my knowledge of the accomplishments of Lear
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews