Owen Barfield, Romanticism Come of Age: A Biography

by Simon Blaxland De Lange, Andrew Welburn (Foreword)

This biography (the first to be published on Owen Barfield) was written with the help of Barfield himself, who, before his death in 1997, participated in numerous interviews with the author. Barfield also lent him many of his papers and manuscripts. The fruit of their collaboration is a book that penetrates deeply into the life and thinking of one of a towering figure of the twentieth century.

Genres: Literature

356 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2006

Reviews

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to agree with John D. Rateliff's review of the book that it is both quirky and a title that any serious future Barfield scholarship is going to have to deal with. The major quirk is that information is presented thematically instead of chronologically. The reader has to pay attention to what year an event is said to have happened. The first nine chapters contain information that will interest Inklings scholars. At the end of chapter 9 the reader is warned that the remainder of the book goes into the esoteric and anthroposophic side of Barfield. I'm glad of the book. It does a nice job of introducing the reader to the man and gives an overview of his work. It provides food for thought about reading Barfield strictly for his own sake and not because he was an Inkling or friend of C.S. Lewis'.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simon Blaxland-de Lange worked with Owen Barfield shortly before Barfield died in 1997. Barfield handed over lots of original unpublished material, as well as spending time with Blaxland for taped interviews. The book shows clearly that Blaxland-de Lange and Barfield made very good use of their time together, and afterword.

The uniqueness, as well as the power, of Blaxland-de Lange's biography on Barfield starts with chapter 1., a literal weaving narrative of mostly Barfield himself talking, with Blaxland-de Lange's filling in and tying together, starting from Barfield's early childhood and on through his entire life. Right away, then, the reader gets a big dose of Barfield himself, not only in his own words, but his own spoken words. It's that living breathing speaking Barfield who informs all the chapters after.

I'm almost ashamed to realize just how shallowly I considered Barfield to be, before reading this book, having read and studied his work for three decades, but never having considered seriously his personal relationships, his poetry, the scope and depth of his researches for History in English Words which was the main source of empirical confirmation of his theory of meaning via a felt change of consciousness, his family, and so much else.

Blaxland-de Lange intelligibly and subtly presents Barfield's philosophical arguments, sympathetically illuminates Barfield's poetry and fiction, and fairly and intimately reveals Barfield with his friends, lovers, wife, and children.

What comes across most strongly, when I've finished the book, and I transcribe my marginalia, is just how powerfully subtle and alive and deliberate was Barfield's mind. We owe a fairly big debt to Blaxland-de Lange for what he's done for our understanding of Barfield himself, and of what Barfield taught us through poems, plays, fairy tales, philosophical and critical studies, and his impact as a human being on other human beings.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well Barfield was an Anthroposophist - and that is on the far side of weird. But he was baptized in the Church of England as an adult, he had some good friends, like Lewis and Tolkein, and he was one of the Inklings, so that makes him interesting.
He wrote some great books: "Saving the Appearances" and "History in English Words", and "Poetic Diction". So it's a mixed bag.

This is the only Barfield biography available and the way it has been put toegther doesn't always help with understanding an already complex character.