The Debt to Pleasure

by John Wilmot, John Adlard (Editor)

Rochester, incontestably the greatest of the Restoratoin Poets and reprobrates, is presented in Debt to Pleasure both in his own words and in the words of those who loved and loathed him. The book is a mosaic in which the poet's voice and the voice of his age sound with a startling, ribald and riotous clarity.

Genres: Literature, Poetry

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

See John Wilmot Rochester for pseudonymous works by the Russian spiritualist V.I. Kryzhanovskaya.

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester was an English libertine, a friend of King Charles II, and the writer of much satirical and bawdy poetry.

He was the toast of the Restoration court and a patron of the arts. He married an heiress, Elizabeth Malet, but had many mistresses, including the actress Elizabeth Barry and drank himself to death at the tender age of 33.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personally, I want to commend the engaging decision to transpose Rochesters writings with that of his contemporaries as somewhat of a 'prelude' to Wilmots' works in each chapter. I appreciated the succinct timelines/dates at the start of each chapter, which I'm pleased are most relevant to the proceding subject matter and not diluted into an exhaustive list.
By having only a short list of relevant dates/events supplied, it helped maintain coherence and enhanced the way in which the book moves chronologically through his works and also divides itself by theme. I think the way that this is done is a logical choice.

Such a wealth is added through context, which I find well-chosen, and find myself impressed by how much even the smallest addition from his contemporaries lends itself to deeper engagement with and appreciation of the mind, works, and life of John Wilmot.

This book is by no means a tome, and is intended for a wider audience, and so I think it does its job well, as it provides a fuller depiction of Rochester than one might get from his works alone, and thus enhances their reading.
I find it a very tasty appetiser, invoking mental appetite and acting as a gateway into more (for lack of a better word) 'academic' literature (or should I say critical analysis?) regarding the Earl, as seen in the introductory chapter, which I find fascinating, though I find I appreciated it more when read again upon finishing the book.