Edward Lear

by Peter Levi

Presents the life of a beloved children's writer and illustrator, describing his life as one of twenty-one children, his secret and violent struggle with epilepsy, his struggles with depression, and the inspiration for his works.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 1995

About the author

Peter Chad Tigar Levi, FSA, FRSL, Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford (1984–1989) was a poet, archaeologist, sometime Jesuit priest, travel writer, biographer, academic and prolific reviewer and critic.

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised to find that Edward Lear was a different generation to what I thought. He was born in 1812, the same year as Dickens. I would have thought the 1840s or even the 1850s and living into the 20thC. He seems so modern.

I had some frustration with this book because it spent a lot of time discussing his paintings and they are not shown. But the more I read the more I liked this lovely man who seemed to be lonely - no wife - with a 'deep well of sweetness'. His world of mid 19thC Greece and Southern Italy, Crete, Corfu, Palestine is all fascinating too. He is a bit too innocent to be really successful and his nonsense poems and his bird paintings were ripped off at various points of his life.

Lear himself is worth five stars as a person and as a creative artist. Levi's biography is good. My criticism is more with the edition of the book I used with its failure to reproduce the art work that was being described.