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Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life
by
Paul Mariani
An insightful and inspirational biography of the heroic and spiritual poet.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) may well have been the most original and innovative poet writing in the English language during the nineteenth century. Yet his story of personal struggle, doubt, intense introspection, and inward heroism has never been told fully. As a Jesuit priest, Hopkins's des...more
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) may well have been the most original and innovative poet writing in the English language during the nineteenth century. Yet his story of personal struggle, doubt, intense introspection, and inward heroism has never been told fully. As a Jesuit priest, Hopkins's des...more
Hardcover, 496 pages
Published
October 30th 2008
by Viking Adult
(first published 2008)
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Mariani, Paul. GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS: A Life. (2008). ***. This is a well researched, almost scholarly biography of Hopkins that, in the end, leaves you rather cold. Mariani pursues his subject as an example of a spiritually gifted man who expressed his spirituality through his poetry. The conundrum was that Hopkins felt that his writing of poetry was time spent away from his true calling as a priest, and subsequently burnt most of his early work. It is only when he finally published his...more
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This poet biography wasn’t quite the artsy-cool one that the Shelley biography was—it was more conventional, but Mariani’s style is different from what I imagine traditional biographies are like. It’s sequence of the salient events that make up the life of G.M. Hopkins. Most interesting I found was that Hopkins was virtually unpublished in his lifetime—that he even resisted it. Mariani starts elsewhere than Hopkins’ birth, choosing to indentify the time around his 21st birthday that he decide...more
See my analysis of this biography in the the 2009 Magill's Literary Annual. Mariani's telling of the poet / priest's life balances Hopkin's commitment to faith and the responsibilities of his office with his love of language and skill as a poet. This approach has never been as fully implemented as it is in this volume because few literary critics have recognized the demands of priesthood as well as Mariani who is an active Catholic devotee (and poet) himself.
When I was in high school, we studied poetry every spring in our English class. At some point I became fascinated with the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a passionate Catholic, who created some of his own language for poetry. Recently, then, I heard about this new biography of Hopkins & decided to read it. It's an unusual book: The author idolizes Hopkins & also think that everything he did is fascinating. The author had access to letters & diaries, so we get sometimes almost a day-by-day a...more
I enjoyed this book very much. It was a lot to slog through at times - Mariani's passion for his subject comes through in his attention to every detail of Hopkins' life, which can be overwhelming. I found it difficult to focus on this book for any significant length of time, so it took me about six months to finish from cover to cover, but I'm glad that I did. I gained insight into Hopkins' poetry and life that I think will help me enjoy his poems even more in the future. I would recommend this ...more
Denise
marked it as to-read
new book nov 08
Claudia
marked it as to-read
When I was at BYU, I decided that I would do my Masters Thesis on Gerard Manley Hopkins. I never did, but I still am intrigued by the man and his poetry. I picked this up during a day trip to the Salt Lake City main library and read bits and pieces. Of course, no card to check it out, but I'll look for it later in a more local library.
The author gives a sympathetic account of Hopkins, deservedly. But, the chapters go on and on into every little detail, letter, visit, etc. This book is great for elaborating on the sprung style that Hopkins developed and really fleshes out the man himself, just I think that it could have been edited down to half its length. This book seems alot like a research project that was just given up on after all the information had been collated.
I've always enjoyed Hopkins' writing style and the impromptu words. This looks like an engaging book about the stories behind him and the poetry.
This biographer ...so far... is right on! I cried at the end. Such a hard life, but such a great poet.
Sara
marked it as to-read
Reviewed by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post Book World (Nov. 2, 2008.)
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