Hostage to Fortune: The Troubled Life of Francis Bacon, 1561-1626

by Lisa Jardine, Alan Stewart

For modern readers--especially those in the sciences who revere him as the father of the inductive method--Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is the model of an English Renaissance man whose towering intellectual achievements somewhat paradoxically set him floating above mundane historical particulars. British academics Lisa Jardine and Alan Stewart fling Bacon back into the hurly-burly of Elizabethan and Jacobean politics, where he unquestionably belongs. Indeed, their magnificently detailed rendering of Bacon's bumpy progression to the pinnacle of royal office-holding, as James I's lord chancellor (he was forced to "retire" in 1621 after a bribery scandal), makes his scientific and philosophical contributions even more remarkable. How on earth did he find time to write The Advancement of Learning (1605) and Novum Organum (1620) at all? In the authors' deliciously dense re-creation, notable for their shrewd evaluations of often misleading written source material, Bacon seems almost exclusively preoccupied with intriguing for promotion, struggling to pay debts incurred by his lavish lifestyle, and currying favor with both Elizabeth's and James's male favorites. (The latter tactic leading to contemporary charges of "sodomy" that the authors do not necessarily dismiss.) Some may regret that this warts-and-all portrait does not spend more time on Bacon's books, but Jardine and Stewart brilliantly succeed in their stated goal of providing "a rich context for those works." Seldom has a scholarly tome so palpably conveyed the gritty, sweaty, faction-ridden reality of being a working politician at the turn of the 17th century. --Wendy Smith

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History Of Science, History

640 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 1998

About the author

Lisa Anne Bronowski (Jardine) was a British historian of the early modern period. From 1990 to 2011 she was Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies and Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary, University of London. Since 2008 she was Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)] She was a Member of Council of the Royal Institution, but resigned from that post in September 2009. On 1 September 2012, She relocated with her research centre and its staff to University College London (UCL) to become the first director of its Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities.

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I said to someone, it reads almost like a badly scripted play. It is quote followed by quote followed by quote. On one page there were only 2 1/2 sentences that weren't quotes (the 1/2 sentence was a lead-in to a quote). It is really irritating for some reason maybe because it is disjointed with no narrator pulling everything together. While the Renaissance English is readable I felt there was a lot of sub-text I wasn't getting since I'm not a Renaissance specialist. I would have liked a lot more summaries of what was said rather than pages and pages of direct quotation.

[Joseph Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did enjoyed the first part of this book and there were certain areas that I wasn't aware that Francis Bacon was responsible (e.g. his proposal to the 'Act of Union' as renaming England and Scotland as Great Britain'). I felt there were vital points that could be expanded and some areas to be removed as irrelevant, focusing on what makes the man and how did he shaped Britian as it is today.

It is readable but felt it is needs to be slightly slimmed down in terms of relevance and focus on the man himself - Francis Bacon.

This is book is recommendable but it wouldn't be on my list of highest recommendations.

[Nelson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Insufferable. It's pretty clear the authors don't much like their subject, which in and of itself is not a recipe for disaster. Indeed, it can enliven what might otherwise be a dull subject. But the life of Bacon can never be dull because the man was a shameless, brilliant, self-indulgent piece of work. And yet in this rendering, it becomes as tedious as mud. Others have (rightly) remarked on the authors' habit of essentially writing linking passages of a sentence or two between long, undigested quotes and translations of the voluminous correspondence. This procedure results in lengthy opacities deadened by unenlightening linking sentences. Unless you are deep in the arcana of jockeyings for court positions in the reigns of Elizabeth and James (something that took up an ungodly amount of Bacon's time), you will be well at sea. In other words, this is not for the general reader. But oddly enough, it isn't for the specialist either, unless that specialist was someone concerned with the intricacies of Elizabethan and Jacobean family politicking. Bacon the writer is lost altogether here, as is the author of important works connected to the birth of modern science. There is worse though: not only is this volume chock a block with excessive and uncommented-upon quotation, the authors see fit at times to render multiple epistolary exchanges as live dialogue. Not clear what the point of this ventriloquizing cum paraphrase is, since it doesn't tend to illuminate the life any more effectively than the excessive quotations. The first half of the text seems vastly more concerned with brother Anthony's spy work on the continent and whether he slept with men; the latter half an unending narration of Bacon's lifelong feud with fellow jurist Coke and his pursuit of patronage. It's as if someone selected all that was least interesting about an incredibly full life, and then rendered it through block quotation from letters. A grossly uninteresting book that manages to skim over his written productions. Jardine's early work on Bacon and her other work on the scientific revolution and Shakespeare are all fine examples of interdisciplinary work—this volume adds nothing to her reputation. What it adds to Bacon studies is occluded under the weight of fussy speculation about acres of excerpted correspondence. Blessedly, there is not an iota of nonsense here about Bacon having written the plays of Shakespeare. Still not recommended.

[Pj Mensel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike many reviewers I thoroughly enjoyed this book although its style is an acquired taste. I LIKED the extensive quotations. How many biographies have you read where the author gives you his interpretation of what was said or thought. In this biography you get to read exactly what was written by witnesses to events. Bacon does come off as power hungry in a somewhat shallow way tremendously worried about his status and reputation when he was quite capable of rampant flattery and double dealing. I also found it quite thorough. Goes on for days and I like detail. I happened to have previously read another biography of someone else that was literally mostly supposition nothing backed up by actual fact. This was a refreshing change. If you are interested in the subject give it a try.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Forced into seclusion, he at last found time to focus his attention on the intellectual projects from which his public commitments had previously distracted him. The philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon who has come down to the twentieth century was the direct result of this infamous political disgrace." (473)

[Toby · Rating 1 out of 5]

With due respect shown to the late and lamented Professor Jardine, this is quite possibly the worst biography that I have ever read. The erudition and research behind the work is evident but Bacon's personality fails to emerge. Lengthy extracts from Bacon's correspondence (though virtually none from his essays) are held together by dry narrative with hardly any background information. This is a book for the Jacobean specialist, not even the well-informed general reader. If you are fascinated by the intrigues of the Early Seventeenth Century court then this is doubtless vital reading. Otherwise there must be better lives out there. A pity, because a book with chapters concerning bodysnatching and buggery promised rather more...

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

a horrible book, horribly written.

There are about 550 pages, but if you boil it down to what Jardine wrote, it would be about 50 pages long. The rest are endless quotations from letters and other original documents. The only problem is, quoting in some cases documents over 600 years old, written in "ye olde english" renders them unreadable. Instead, the author should have actually written and captured the events.

It was just lazy work.

[Lissa Notreallywolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bogged half way through this book and am still trying to get up the strength to pick up the tome. This is one of the most thorough biographies of Francis Bacon available. Give me strength to finish it.