
Keats
A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph
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Narrated by:
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Sally Scott
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By:
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Lucasta Miller
A dazzling new look into the short but intense, tragic life and remarkable work of John Keats, one of the greatest lyric poets of the English language, seen in a whole new light, not as the mythologized Victorian guileless nature-lover, but as the subversive, bawdy complex cynic whose life and poetry were lived and created on the edge.
In this brief life, acclaimed biographer Lucasta Miller takes nine of Keats's best-known poems—"Endymion"; "On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer"; "Ode to a Nightingale"; "To Autumn"; "Bright Star" among them—and excavates how they came to be and what in Keats's life led to their creation. She writes of aspects of Keats's life that have been overlooked, and explores his imagination in the context of his world and experience, paying tribute to the unique quality of his mind.
Miller, through Keats’s poetry, brilliantly resurrects and brings vividly to life, the man, the poet in all his complexity and spirit, living dangerously, disdaining respectability and cultural norms, and embracing subversive politics. Keats was a lower-middle-class outsider from a tragic and fractured family, whose extraordinary energy and love of language allowed him to pummel his way into the heart of English literature; a freethinker and a liberal at a time of repression, who delighted in the sensation of the moment.
We see how Keats was regarded by his contemporaries (his writing was seen as smutty) and how the young poet’s large and boisterous life—a man of the metropolis, who took drugs, was sexually reckless and afflicted with syphilis—went straight up against the Victorian moral grain; and Miller makes clear why his writing—considered marginal and avant-garde in his own day—retains its astonishing originality, sensuousness and power two centuries on.
©2022 Lucasta Miller (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year
“[Miller] digs into the backstories of her subject’s most famous poems to uncover aspects of his life and work that challenge well-worn romantic myths. The irresistible result: an often irreverent yet compassionate approach to the poet that cuts through the hagiography . . . Her unpacking of his language, which is so brilliantly suited to representing material bodily experience, is often refreshingly matter of fact . . . Keats the man also emerges as fully embodied.”—Elizabeth Lowry, Wall Street Journal
“Detailed and original . . . intimate . . . Miller conveys a strong personal connection with the poet . . . This penetrating and charming study will enchant Keats’s fans.”—Publishers Weekly
“Subtly intertwining biographical detail with crisp readings of the poetry, Miller creates an insightful, vibrant portrait.” —Kirkus (starred)
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Ms. Scott gave an above average performance.
Light Biography
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Enjoyable
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For the love of Keats
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Great biography of an important English poet
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Keats through a lens darkly
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Most important, however, the book includes nine of Keats’ best known poems, beautifully read by narrator Sally Scott.
A Romantic Life
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Thoroughly enjoyed while knitting!
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I truly hope Ms Scott will go forward and read many more versions of Keats’ other poetry on her own merits. She far surpasses what is currently out there, for the most part, and her heartening reading of “Isabella” is especially captivating. I highly recommend this fantastic book and audio to anyone who loves poetry and the works of one of it’s greatest writers, John Keats, whose poems never grow old, or fail to inspire upon countless rereading. It boggles the mind to think what poetical heights he would have achieved if he had not died so terribly young! This is most happy listening at it’s best. Enjoy this “thing of beauty” and be prepared to be fully spellbound as the poems are read in full, except for Endymion.
A Most Wonderful Book, Beautifully Read
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What a pleasure!
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