John Julius Norwich's Books

Sicily

An Island at the Crossroads of History

By: John Julius Norwich

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Sicily

An Island at the Crossroads of History

By: John Julius Norwich

Critically acclaimed author John Julius Norwich weaves the turbulent story of Sicily into a spellbinding narrative that places the island at the crossroads of world history. “Sicily,” said Goethe, “is the key to everything.” It is the largest island in the Mediterranean, the stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, the link between the Latin West and the Greek East. Sicily’s strategic location has tempted Roman emperors, French princes, and Spanish kings. The subsequent struggles to conquer and keep it have played crucial roles in the rise and fall of the world’s most powerful dynasties. Yet Sicily has often been little more than a footnote in books about other empires. John Julius Norwich’s engrossing narrative is the first to knit together all of the colorful strands of Sicilian history into a single comprehensive study. Here is a vivid, erudite, page-turning chronicle of an island and the remarkable kings, queens, and tyrants who fought to rule it. From its beginnings as a Greek city-state to its emergence as a multicultural trading hub during the Crusades, from the rebellion against Italian unification to the rise of the Mafia, the story of Sicily is rich with extraordinary moments and dramatic characters. Writing with his customary deftness and humor, Norwich outlines the surprising influence Sicily has had on world history—the Romans’ fascination with Greek civilization dates back to their sack of Sicily—and tells the story of one of the world’s most kaleidoscopic cultures in a galvanizing, contemporary way. This volume has been a long time coming—Norwich began to explore Sicily’s colorful history during his first visit to the island in the early 1960s. The dean of popular historians leads his readers through the millennia with the steady narrative hand of a master teacher or the world’s most learned tour guide. Like the island itself, Sicily is a book brimming with bold flavors that begs to be revisited again and again. Praise for Sicily “Suavely readable . . . The very model of a popular historian, [Norwich] writes to give pleasure to the common reader. And what pleasure it is.”—The Wall Street Journal “Entertaining on every page . . . There is something ancient and sorrowful in Sicily, ‘some dark, brooding quality,’ just as captivating as its spellbinding history or its beautiful and varied landscapes, from beaches to lemon groves, pine forests to volcanoes. . . . The most amiable and freewheeling of guides, Norwich will always find time for the amusing anecdote.”—The Sunday Times “Utterly engrossing . . . written with passion about the art and architecture of this magical island, filled with gossipy tidbits and sweeping historical theories.”—The Daily Beast “Dazzling . . . Norwich is an elegantly graceful and entertaining storyteller.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch “Charming . . . richly nuanced history relayed with enormous fondness.”—Kirkus Reviews “A brisk and always-lively tour.”—Open Letters Monthly “Norwich is deeply in love with Sicily. [His] boundless affection has inspired a determined effort to understand its painful past. The result is impressionistic, as love often is.”—The Times “Norwich sketches personalities vividly. . . . He does the island and the reader a generous service in providing such an amiable introduction.”—The Sunday Telegraph “Norwich tells [Sicily’s] long, sad but fascinating story with sympathy and brio.”—Literary Review

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Page Count

400

Publisher

Random House

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812995198

ISBN 13

9780812995190

Love in the Ancient World

By: John Julius Norwich

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Love in the Ancient World

By: John Julius Norwich

Travel back in time in search of long-lost attitudes on love, lust, and passion. Beautifully illustrated in full color, this fascinating exploration uncovers how ancient civilizations regarded sex and sexuality. Exquisite photographs showcase sculpture, pottery, paintings, and architecture that feature graphic representations of the human form and the art of love. Seeing how romance was represented, communicated, and mythologized from the cave dwellers through the sophisticated Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans gives us new perspectives on history and on our lives today.

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Page Count

176

Publisher

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published Date

ISBN 10

1841880108

ISBN 13

9781841880105

An English Christmas

By: John Julius Norwich

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An English Christmas

By: John Julius Norwich

If I could work my will,' said Scrooge indignantly, 'Every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.' This year go carol-singing in the Cotswolds with Laurie Lee or attend church with a grumpy Samuel Pepys. Make plum puddings for bemused French villagers with Elizabeth David; go present shopping with Virginia Woolf or eat far too much with Agatha Christie. Celebrate Christmas at Chatsworth, in the workhouse or marooned in the ice with Shackleton ... For forty-five years, the arrival of John Julius Norwich's latest Christmas Cracker became as essential a part of the Christmas experience as holly and mistletoe. In An English Christmas the late legendary popular historian gathered all the best writing about this strangest and most memorable time of year into one book and his brilliant eye for a story is evident on every page. Vividly evoking all the good things about the festive season, this unexpected anthology is just as entertaining about its darker aspects. Eight-year-old Princess Margaret's thank-you list jostles with moving letters home from the trenches. Sherlock Holmes solves his trickiest case. George Orwell writes about indigestion; Jane Austen about reluctant socialising and Thomas Hardy about the old folk belief that all animals kneel at midnight on 24 December. There are ghost stories, games and bizarre recipes. Diary-entries, recipes and letters sit alongside poems and short stories. An English Christmas could convert any Scrooge into an instant enthusiast.

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Page Count

288

Publisher

John Murray

Published Date

ISBN 10

1473665949

ISBN 13

9781473665941

Paradise of Cities

Venice in the Nineteenth Century

By: John Julius Norwich

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Paradise of Cities

Venice in the Nineteenth Century

By: John Julius Norwich

John Julius Norwich’s A History of Venice has been dubbed “indispensable” by none other than Jan Morris. Now, in his second book on the city once known as La Serenissima, Norwich advances the story in this elegant chronicle of a hundred years of Venice’s highs and lows, from its ignominious capture by Napoleon in 1797 to the dawn of the 20th century. An obligatory stop on the Grand Tour for any cultured Englishman (and, later, Americans), Venice limped into the 19th century–first under the yoke of France, then as an outpost of the Austrian Hapsburgs, stripped of riches yet indelibly the most ravishing city in Italy. Even when subsumed into a unified Italy in 1866, it remained a magnet for aesthetes of all stripes–subject or setting of books by Ruskin and James, a muse to poets and musicians, in its way the most gracious courtesan of all European cities. By refracting images of Venice through the visits of such extravagant (and sometimes debauched) artists as Lord Byron, Richard Wagner, and the inimitable Baron Corvo, Norwich conjures visions of paradise on a lagoon, as enduring as brick and as elusive as the tides.

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Page Count

402

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307427226

ISBN 13

9780307427229

Shakespeare's Kings

The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages: 1337-1485

By: John Julius Norwich

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Shakespeare's Kings

The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages: 1337-1485

By: John Julius Norwich

Compares the historical kings with their portrayal in Shakespeare's plays.

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Page Count

438

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

0743200314

ISBN 13

9780743200318

The Middle Sea

A History of the Mediterranean

By: John Julius Norwich

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The Middle Sea

A History of the Mediterranean

By: John Julius Norwich

This lively and dramatic book brings roaring to life the grand sweep of 5,000 years of history in the cradle of civilization. A wonderfully illustrated account of the civilizations that rose and fell on the lands bordering the Mediterranean, The Middle Sea represents the culmination of a great historian’s unparalleled art and scholarship. John Julius Norwich provides brilliant portraits of the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the French, the Venetians, the Popes, and the pirates of the Gulf. Above all, he deftly traces the intermingling of ancient conflicts and modern sensibilities that shapes life today on the shores of the Middle Sea.

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Page Count

779

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307387720

ISBN 13

9780307387721

The Illustrated Christmas Cracker

By: John Julius Norwich

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The Illustrated Christmas Cracker

By: John Julius Norwich

A classic Christmas gift book, reissued with new cover artwork by Quentin Blake For more than 40 years, John Julius Norwich has been sending out his Christmas Crackers—a personal collection of quirky quotes and literary odds and ends—to his friends instead of a Christmas card. Here, Quentin Blake has made his own selection of favorite pieces and has illustrated them in his own trademark style. From curious dictionary definitions ("Carphology. Delirious fumbling with the bedclothes," Concise Oxford Dictionary) and tortuous palindromes ("Live dirt up a side-track carted is a putrid evil") to 18th-century accounts of drunken pigs and Benjamin Franklin's account of inventing bifocals, this cracker is stuffed with surprising, offbeat, often hilarious gems. Enlivened by Quentin Blake's witty illustrations, this book is a perfect stocking-stuffer.

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Atlantic Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1782392521

ISBN 13

9781782392521

Byzantium

The Early Centuries

By: John Julius Norwich

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Byzantium

The Early Centuries

By: John Julius Norwich

He is brilliant ... He writes like the most cultivated modern diplomat attached by a freak of time to the Byzantine court, with intimate knowledge, tactful judgement and a consciousness of the surviving monuments' IndependentIn this exciting narrative history, John Julius Norwich, one of most accomplished popular historians, reveals the beginning of Byzantium. He tells of the five formative centuries of an empire that would enthral the western world for more than eleven hundred years.

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Page Count

407

Publisher

Penguin Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0140114475

ISBN 13

9780140114478

Christmas Cracker

Being a Commonplace Selection

By: John Julius Norwich

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Christmas Cracker

Being a Commonplace Selection

By: John Julius Norwich

Each year these small anthologies of poetry and prose are sent out to friends instead of a Christmas card.

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ISBN 10

0951807870

ISBN 13

9780951807873

Absolute Monarchs

A History of the Papacy

By: John Julius Norwich

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Absolute Monarchs

A History of the Papacy

By: John Julius Norwich

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In a chronicle that captures nearly two thousand years of inspiration and intrigue, John Julius Norwich recounts in riveting detail the histories of the most significant popes and what they meant politically, culturally, and socially to Rome and to the world. Norwich presents such popes as Innocent I, who in the fifth century successfully negotiated with Alaric the Goth, an invader civil authorities could not defeat; Leo I, who two decades later tamed (and perhaps paid off) Attila the Hun; the infamous “pornocracy”—the five libertines who were descendants or lovers of Marozia, debauched daughter of one of Rome’s most powerful families; Pope Paul III, “the greatest pontiff of the sixteenth century,” who reinterpreted the Church’s teaching and discipline; John XXIII, who in five short years starting in 1958 instituted reforms that led to Vatican II; and Benedict XVI, who is coping with today’s global priest sex scandal. Epic and compelling, Absolute Monarchs is an enthralling history from “an enchanting and satisfying raconteur” (The Washington Post).

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Page Count

530

Publisher

Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812978846

ISBN 13

9780812978841

Venice

A Traveller's Companion

By: John Julius Norwich

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Venice

A Traveller's Companion

By: John Julius Norwich

Venice of the sixth century, when lagoon-dwellers lived like sea-birds in huts built on heaps of osiers, was the city of the Doges, where people were inspired by the glories of Byzantium as they built it. Thirteenth century Venice was a world power holding the gorgeous East in fee and 15th and 16th century Venice was the city where Titian and Tintoretto and Veronese were at work. Venice of the 18th century was a city for revellers and in the 19th century it was a city for art lovers - each of these periods in its history is portrayed as its inhabitants and visitors saw it, through their eyes and in their voices.

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Page Count

427

Published Date

ISBN 10

0094675600

ISBN 13

9780094675605

Venice

A Traveller's Reader

By: John Julius Norwich

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Venice

A Traveller's Reader

By: John Julius Norwich

Views of the city of lagoons and gondolas; Henry James was passionate: 'You desire to embrace it, to caress it, to possess it...', whereas Mark Twain found St Mark's 'so ugly...Propped on its long row of thick-legged columns, its back knobbed with domes, it seems like a vast, warty bug taking a mediaeval walk.' Reactions to Venice have been, throughout the ages, astonishingly different. John Julius Norwich has produced a dazzling anthology from the writings of Byron, Goethe, Wagner, Casanova, Jan Morris, Robert Browning, and Horace Walpole, among many others. From the days of the sixth century, when lagoon-dwellers lived 'like sea-birds' in huts built on heaps of osiers, to the Venice of eighteenth-century revellers and nineteenth-century art lovers - the city's many different guises are all portrayed as its inhabitants and visitors saw them.

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Page Count

430

Publisher

Hachette UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

1472139801

ISBN 13

9781472139801

The Duff Cooper Diaries

1915-1951

By: John Julius Norwich

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The Duff Cooper Diaries

1915-1951

By: John Julius Norwich

The long awaited and highly revealing diaries of the politician, diplomat, and socialite (married to Lady Diana Cooper) 'This is a fabulous, jaw-dropping read' SUNDAY TIMES 'Duff Cooper was as close to the action as anyone during the dramatic events of the mid-20th century. He was also comically priapic, committing enough sexual indiscretions to fill a dozen diaries' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Fascinating for two things: their testament to an exhilarating century and their witness to a vanished age of power and privilege ... What a man' OBSERVER Duff Cooper was a first-rate witness of just about every significant event from 1914 to 1950. His diary includes some magnificent set pieces - as a young soldier at the end of WWI, as a politician during the General Strike of 1926, as King Edward VIII's friend at the time of the Abdication, and from Paris after the liberation in 1944, when he became British ambassador. If Duff Cooper's name has dimmed in the 50 years since his death, publication of these diaries will bring him to the fore once again. His family have long resisted publication - indeed Duff Cooper's nephew, the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis, was so shocked by the sexual revelations that he suggested to John Julius Norwich that it might be best for all concerned if they were burnt. Now, superbly edited by John Julius Norwich, who familial link ensures all kinds of additional information as footnotes, these diaries join the ranks.

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Page Count

780

Publisher

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published Date

ISBN 10

1780227507

ISBN 13

9781780227504

Paradise of Cities

Venice and Its Nineteenth-century Visitors

By: John Julius Norwich

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Paradise of Cities

Venice and Its Nineteenth-century Visitors

By: John Julius Norwich

The city of Venice through the eyes of nineteenth century visitors.For this portrait of Venice in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Lord Norwich has abandoned the historical approach, preferring to look at the city through the eyes of the most distinguished of its foreign visitors or residents. Beginning with Napoleon - with, perhaps, the most mysterious of all his mistresses - we continue with Byron, who cut his usual swathe among the feminine population while embarking on the last great affair of his life. Ruskin, Browning, Wagner and Henry James are among the others who for a longer or shorter time made the city their own, together with the two great Anglo-American painters James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. The survey ends with the insufferable ";Baron Corvo";, who poisoned the life of the British colony in Venice in the years immediately before the First World War.John Julius Norwich has long been the foremost authority on Venice and in Paradise of Cities he confirms his reputation as an unparalleled historical storyteller. His book will delight and fascinate all lovers of this remarkable city.

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Page Count

283

Published Date

ISBN 10

0140297170

ISBN 13

9780140297171

Still More Christmas Crackers, 1990-1999

Being Ten Commonplace Selections

By: John Julius Norwich

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Still More Christmas Crackers, 1990-1999

Being Ten Commonplace Selections

By: John Julius Norwich

For thirty years John Julius Norwich was been sending out Christmas Crackers - personal selections of poetry, prose and literary odds and ends - to his friends instead of Christmas cards. This, the third volume of his wonderfully offbeat and varied collections, brings together a multitude of treasures that includes an appearance by the ghost of Wilfred Owen; Adam and Eve conversing in palindromes; the story of Oedipus told in car number plates; and David Livingstone getting lost on the railway.

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368

Published Date

ISBN 10

0141007052

ISBN 13

9780141007052

Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was

The Original Story of 'Operation Mincemeat' - Both Fact and Fiction - by the Men Who Were There

By: Hastings Ismay,John Julius Norwich

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Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was

The Original Story of 'Operation Mincemeat' - Both Fact and Fiction - by the Men Who Were There

By: Hastings Ismay,John Julius Norwich

In the early hours of 30 April 1943, a corpse, wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Marines, was slipped into the waters off the south-west coast of Spain. With it was a briefcase, in which were papers detailing an imminent Allied invasion of Greece. As the British had anticipated, the supposedly neutral government of Fascist Spain turned the papers over to the Nazi High Command, who swallowed the story whole. It was perhaps the most decisive bluff of all time, for the Allies had no such plan: the purpose of ‘Operation Mincemeat’ was to blind the German High Command to their true objective – an attack on Southern Europe through Sicily. Though officially shrouded in secrecy, the operation soon became legendary (in part owing to Churchill’s post-war habit of telling the story at dinner). It gave rise to two very different books. In 1950 came Duff Cooper’s poignant novel Operation Heartbreak, a romantic tale, one which the government – right up to PM Clement Attlee – attempted to suppress. Its publication prompted the intelligence services to pressurize the operation’s mastermind, Ewen Montagu, into writing a factual account, The Man Who Never Was. Spellmount are proud to present these two accounts, fictional and factual, of one of the greatest intelligence operations ever undertaken, with an introduction by Duff Cooper’s son, John Julius Norwich.

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Page Count

209

Publisher

The History Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0752476327

ISBN 13

9780752476322

Four Princes

Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe

By: John Julius Norwich

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Four Princes

Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe

By: John Julius Norwich

“Bad behavior makes for entertaining history” in this bold history of Europe, the Middle East, and the men who ruled them in the early sixteenth century (Kirkus Reviews). John Julius Norwich—“the very model of a popular historian”—is acclaimed for his distinctive ability to weave together a fascinating narrative through vivid detail, colorful anecdotes, and captivating characters. Here, he explores four leaders—Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, and Suleiman—who led their countries during the Renaissance (The Wall Street Journal). Francis I of France was the personification of the Renaissance, and a highly influential patron of the arts and education. Henry VIII, who was not expected to inherit the throne but embraced the role with gusto, broke with the Roman Catholic Church and appointed himself head of the Church of England. Charles V was the most powerful man of the time, and unanimously elected Holy Roman Emperor. And Suleiman the Magnificent—who stood apart as a Muslim—brought the Ottoman Empire to its apogee of political, military, and economic power. These men collectively shaped the culture, religion, and politics of their respective domains. With remarkable erudition, John Julius Norwich offers “an important history, masterfully written,” indelibly depicting four dynamic characters and how their incredible achievements—and obsessions with one another—changed Europe forever (The Washington Times).

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Page Count

274

Publisher

Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802189466

ISBN 13

9780802189462

Hidden Tuscany

Discovering Art, Culture, and Memories in a Well-Known Region's Unknown Places

By: John Keahey

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Hidden Tuscany

Discovering Art, Culture, and Memories in a Well-Known Region's Unknown Places

By: John Keahey

Hidden Tuscany vividly displays the coastal areas of Tuscany, a territory often overlooked by visitors to Italy eager to see Chianti, Florence or Siena. Veteran journalist and Italophile John Keahey points out the keen distinctions that the western cities maintain: in food, lifestyle, and the way its artists are paving new directions in art that differ mightily from the Renaissance-rich interior. Keahey interviews sculptors and their artigiani, craftsmen and women who toil in the marble studios, eating their lunch in workers' clubs and cafes. From beach locales such as Viareggio, to Livorno (which has Venetian-style canals), modern Orbetello and the seven islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, Keahey reveals beaches rich in European visitors and magnificent medieval villages that rarely see outsiders. The larger, better-known Tuscan coastal city Pisa can even surprise a curious visitor with places of solitude. Keahey's previous books on Italy have always received widespread and complimentary review coverage--garnering praise for the depth of his research and his comprehensive analysis. Travelers instantly flock to books about Tuscany, and this one promotes towns and villages that are often missed by tourists, letting readers in on these 'secret' destinations. For armchair travelers or vacation seekers, Hidden Tuscany puts a very human face on the region in Keahey's discussion of food, history and language. And the result is mesmerizing"--

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Page Count

321

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1250024315

ISBN 13

9781250024312

Tennyson

To Strive, to Seek, to Find

By: John Batchelor

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Tennyson

To Strive, to Seek, to Find

By: John Batchelor

This biography of the poet is “acute in its examination of Tennyson’s character and his importance for Victorian culture” (The Times Literary Supplement). Alfred Lord Tennyson, Queen Victoria’s favorite poet, commanded a wider readership than any other of his time. His ascendancy was neither the triumph of pure genius nor an accident of history: he skillfully crafted his own career and his relationships with his audience. Fame and recognition came, lavishly and in abundance, but the hunger for more never left him. Resolving never to be anything except “a poet,” he wore his hair long, smoked incessantly, and sported a cloak and wide-brimmed Spanish hat. Tennyson ranged widely in his poetry, turning his interests in geology, evolution, and Arthurian legend into verse, but much of his work relates to his personal life. The poet who wrote “The Lady of Shalott” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” has become a permanent part of our culture. This enjoyable and thoughtful new biography shows him as a Romantic as well as a Victorian, exploring both the poems and the pressures of his era, and the personal relationships that made the man.

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Page Count

687

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1480448303

ISBN 13

9781480448308

Book's by John Julius Norwich

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