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Stricken Deer
First published in 1929, The Stricken Deer was the winner of that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize and also the Hawthornden it was David Cecil's first book.For a time, towards the end of the eighteenth-century, William Cowper was the foremost poet in England. But David Cecil's biography doesn't celebrate a life of success, rather, in Cowper's own words, 'the strange and uncommon incidents of my life.' Cowper suffered from severe bouts of depression. His personal tragedy however enriched English the fear of madness made him turn to writing poetry as a form of mental discipline, and isolation for the great world and from his own kind helped him to become the most enchanting of letter-writers.'This is a sympathetic and vivid biography; it is subtle with a kind of gentle acuteness and vivid without literary ostentation. It is the work of a biographer with a clear head and a clever heart ... the rarest of all merits is the sensitive fairness of the of the biographer's estimate of character and situation throughout.' Desmond MacCarthy, Sunday Times
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 19, 2016
On the one hand, there are some very compelling aspects to this book. The narrative is often very vivid and well-written. Cecil understood that the historian is not a mere curator of facts but a storyteller.
On the other hand, the author takes a few too many imaginative liberties (he sometimes writes as though he were an eyewitness, even though he obviously was not one). He gets a little carried away in attributing thoughts and feelings and reimagining scenes and it has detrimental effect. Cecil is also unrestrainedly biased against evangelicalism (especially John Newton-he goes out of his way to insult him in an almost absurdly exaggerated way ). I think the slant causes him to get Cowper and his contemporaries (such as Newton) seriously wrong and further causes a credibility problem.
This book will always remain an important one in wrangling with the incredibly complex character of William Cowper, but its flaws should be registered and accounted for.
On the other hand, the author takes a few too many imaginative liberties (he sometimes writes as though he were an eyewitness, even though he obviously was not one). He gets a little carried away in attributing thoughts and feelings and reimagining scenes and it has detrimental effect. Cecil is also unrestrainedly biased against evangelicalism (especially John Newton-he goes out of his way to insult him in an almost absurdly exaggerated way ). I think the slant causes him to get Cowper and his contemporaries (such as Newton) seriously wrong and further causes a credibility problem.
This book will always remain an important one in wrangling with the incredibly complex character of William Cowper, but its flaws should be registered and accounted for.
December 1, 2014
I read this as background to Jane Austen as Cowper's poetry is often mentioned in her novels. He was an unusual character, plagued throughout his life by severe mental breakdowns, and I found the book interesting. It is not a scholarly work, no indication of where the author got his information, but very readable. Cowper became somewhat of a celebrity late in life even though he lived very simply and quietly. He owed some of the success he had to women friends who couldn't seem to resist his odd charm and watched out for him! If you are a Janeite, you should learn something about this writer.
April 22, 2020
Glorious and devastating.
December 14, 2025
Looking back this was my favorite book I've read this year, & maybe ever. God rest your soul, Cowper.
January 19, 2023
William Cowper is something of an enigma. A man who experienced a dramatic conversion in which my favourite verse of scripture was instrumental, Romans 3:25, who wrote some of the best loved hymns in English, but later had a serious breakdown that led him to believe he was uniquely predestined to damnation for the rest of his life.
This biography was by blue-blooded David Cecil. On the one hand his aversion to Calvinism comes as no surprise and colours some parts of the book. On the other hand this does not impair the book too much, he is genuinely sympathetic to Cowper and writes beautifully.
The style is not that of a modern footnoted biography. Cecil does exercise his imagination but it is clearly based on extensive reading of the sources. The frustration, of course, is the impossibility of following up some of his assertions to see how well they measure up 90 years after the book was written. In particular, he characterises John Newton as domineering and frustrated with his congregation in Olney. Is this correct?
Cowper had a troubled childhood. His mother died when he was six and a year later his experience of boarding school was traumatic. Cecil sees this as destabilising his emotions. His secondary experience was positive and he then trained as a lawyer, a career for which he was very unsuited. The absence of briefs left him far too much time on his own to muse and despair. A relative secured him a sinecure in the House of Lords as a clerk but opponents insisted on an examination. The preparation for this led to depression and, the day of the exam, to the first mental breakdown.
Cowper ended up at a small asylum in St Albans cared for by an evangelical doctor. Upon recovery he moved to Huntingdon to be near his brother who was a don in Cambridge. He fell in with the Reverend Unwin, his wife and family. Mrs Unwin was an evangelical, and in this period Cowper had a conversion experience. Her considerably older husband soon died and, meeting John Newton, they decided to move to Olney in Buckinghamshire. Here Cowper wrote his hymns, his first poetic works.
Several years later the second breakdown followed, Cowper becoming convinced of his damnation. Through this he was cared for by Mary Unwin, and by John Newton and his wife, until his mental, but not spiritual, recovery. The kindness shown to him by evangelicals, however much Cecil might not like their theology, is inescapable. Compared to our lurid picture of Bedlam, Cowper had the most sympathetic care Georgian England could provide for the mentally unwell. Until near the end of his life Cowper couldn’t bear to hear grace said at meals or be in a room where the Bible was being read. In this period he developed his famous attachments to gardening, and wildlife, including at least three pet hares.
Upon recovery Cowper led a very sedentary life, not stirring from Olney and its environs, with a number of other evangelical friends. He met a Lady Austen whose friendship came perilously close to marriage (he liked to flirt) but she did encourage him to write poetry. The poems that then flowed from his pen were what made him famous in the literary world. (I have read his complete works and consider his earlier hymns to be the best of his productions.) The biography contains no analysis of these works. One wonders if some of the trigger for his earlier breakdowns was the absence of good toil suited to him.
Friends encouraged him to move a short distance to Weston to a prettier house, close to titled Roman Catholic friends. The final descent into madness was triggered by Mary Unwin having the first of three strokes. The stress of caring for her took Cowper down the slope of fears, nightmares and shadows. Again, various friends were selfless in caring for him until he and Mary ended up with a clergyman in Norfolk who, after Cowper’s death, recorded that his face lost the cares and sadnesses of terror and seemed at peace. Cecil cannot but help asking whether, in his last hours, Cowper found the peace he knew existed for others but had, for so long, denied was available to him.
How do we respond to a life like Cowper’s? Was he saved or was he not? There is no way we can say for certain. As we sing his hymns we should remember there are many saints troubled in mind and seek often to encourage our brothers and sisters in the assurance of God’s love for them. Assurance is such a precious fruit of the gospel.
The book won the James Tait Black Prize in 1929. I am not sure how much I like reading biographies. I always prepare for them by reading something by the object of the book, if they were writers. I think of them as literary vitamins, good for you but often a bit dry and tough work. I learn a lot but don’t always enjoy it. This one was better than most James Tait Black Prize winners. Others (pre Goodreads review days) I would recommend up to this point are Lord Grey of the Reform Bill (1920 GM Trevelyan, Whig history and turned Grey into a bit of a hero for me, getting the abolition of slavery through in the last gasp of his ministry), Queen Victoria (1921 Lytton Strachey, Bloomsbury Circle, in a later illustrated edition), and Earlham (1922 Percy Lubbock, fond recollections of godly Quakers by a man in the Bloomsbury Circle, a rhapsodic book).
This biography was by blue-blooded David Cecil. On the one hand his aversion to Calvinism comes as no surprise and colours some parts of the book. On the other hand this does not impair the book too much, he is genuinely sympathetic to Cowper and writes beautifully.
The style is not that of a modern footnoted biography. Cecil does exercise his imagination but it is clearly based on extensive reading of the sources. The frustration, of course, is the impossibility of following up some of his assertions to see how well they measure up 90 years after the book was written. In particular, he characterises John Newton as domineering and frustrated with his congregation in Olney. Is this correct?
Cowper had a troubled childhood. His mother died when he was six and a year later his experience of boarding school was traumatic. Cecil sees this as destabilising his emotions. His secondary experience was positive and he then trained as a lawyer, a career for which he was very unsuited. The absence of briefs left him far too much time on his own to muse and despair. A relative secured him a sinecure in the House of Lords as a clerk but opponents insisted on an examination. The preparation for this led to depression and, the day of the exam, to the first mental breakdown.
Cowper ended up at a small asylum in St Albans cared for by an evangelical doctor. Upon recovery he moved to Huntingdon to be near his brother who was a don in Cambridge. He fell in with the Reverend Unwin, his wife and family. Mrs Unwin was an evangelical, and in this period Cowper had a conversion experience. Her considerably older husband soon died and, meeting John Newton, they decided to move to Olney in Buckinghamshire. Here Cowper wrote his hymns, his first poetic works.
Several years later the second breakdown followed, Cowper becoming convinced of his damnation. Through this he was cared for by Mary Unwin, and by John Newton and his wife, until his mental, but not spiritual, recovery. The kindness shown to him by evangelicals, however much Cecil might not like their theology, is inescapable. Compared to our lurid picture of Bedlam, Cowper had the most sympathetic care Georgian England could provide for the mentally unwell. Until near the end of his life Cowper couldn’t bear to hear grace said at meals or be in a room where the Bible was being read. In this period he developed his famous attachments to gardening, and wildlife, including at least three pet hares.
Upon recovery Cowper led a very sedentary life, not stirring from Olney and its environs, with a number of other evangelical friends. He met a Lady Austen whose friendship came perilously close to marriage (he liked to flirt) but she did encourage him to write poetry. The poems that then flowed from his pen were what made him famous in the literary world. (I have read his complete works and consider his earlier hymns to be the best of his productions.) The biography contains no analysis of these works. One wonders if some of the trigger for his earlier breakdowns was the absence of good toil suited to him.
Friends encouraged him to move a short distance to Weston to a prettier house, close to titled Roman Catholic friends. The final descent into madness was triggered by Mary Unwin having the first of three strokes. The stress of caring for her took Cowper down the slope of fears, nightmares and shadows. Again, various friends were selfless in caring for him until he and Mary ended up with a clergyman in Norfolk who, after Cowper’s death, recorded that his face lost the cares and sadnesses of terror and seemed at peace. Cecil cannot but help asking whether, in his last hours, Cowper found the peace he knew existed for others but had, for so long, denied was available to him.
How do we respond to a life like Cowper’s? Was he saved or was he not? There is no way we can say for certain. As we sing his hymns we should remember there are many saints troubled in mind and seek often to encourage our brothers and sisters in the assurance of God’s love for them. Assurance is such a precious fruit of the gospel.
The book won the James Tait Black Prize in 1929. I am not sure how much I like reading biographies. I always prepare for them by reading something by the object of the book, if they were writers. I think of them as literary vitamins, good for you but often a bit dry and tough work. I learn a lot but don’t always enjoy it. This one was better than most James Tait Black Prize winners. Others (pre Goodreads review days) I would recommend up to this point are Lord Grey of the Reform Bill (1920 GM Trevelyan, Whig history and turned Grey into a bit of a hero for me, getting the abolition of slavery through in the last gasp of his ministry), Queen Victoria (1921 Lytton Strachey, Bloomsbury Circle, in a later illustrated edition), and Earlham (1922 Percy Lubbock, fond recollections of godly Quakers by a man in the Bloomsbury Circle, a rhapsodic book).
June 12, 2017
Incredibly biased. Lord Cecil blamed John Newton's calvinism for compounding Cowper's condition. Useful to read if you have an extensive interest in Cowper as I do - but otherwise there are much more helpful biographies of Cowper.
December 29, 2025
This is one of 3 books that I have read on the life of William Cowper. I've been fascinated by his story for some time -- I suppose because his life story doesn't fit into any neat, perfect, boxes. He was a man of both passion and deep inner turmoil, and that never gets solved in his life here on earth, but I believe was healed when he saw his Savior. The author of this book, David Cecil, takes a different perspective and seems to believe that Cowper's religion was a contributing factor to his struggles with depression and despair. He also tells the story as if John Newton was a domineering and unhelpful character in Cowper's story. But if you read other biographies, you get a totally different story. It does make one wonder what the truth was, but this book is sadly lacking a bibliography, so I don't know what the author is basing his perspective on. Another book I have read on Cowper cites a large number of sources and includes larger portions of his personal letters, so I am more inclined to believe that perspective on his life as a Christian than I am David Cecil's. That said, I thought this was an excellent book. It's very well written, and Cecil certainly weaves a captivating story. I didn't want it to end.
March 18, 2025
This was on my Christmas list and the first of the four books on it that I read. Having been brought up in a Calvinist cult his experiences were not unusual. Being indoctrinated that you were a sinner destined for hell and that your fate had been determined before the world was made and that it was easy to backside and lose your election of grace and could not recover it was not an easy doctrine either to believe or find comfort in. Poor William had a gift for poetry which was flawed by his Calvinism but parts of it are wonderful. It is reported that Queen Victoria had a copy by her bedside and Virginia Woolf was also an admirer. She put lines from his poem 'The Castaway' into her novel 'To The Lighthouse'.
A very good read.
A very good read.
July 22, 2022
The greater portion of the book was given to Cowper's depression, anxiety, paranoia, suicidal thoughts and attempts. This made for a weary progress through the book. There were lighthearted observations which showed wit, either on Cecil's part or Cowper's - I know not which since Cecil's work was based on having read a significant number of Cowper's letters, diaries etc.
I think that had the balance been right, alot more of Cowper's poems and hyms being included and some more enlightenment on his personality when he was 'in a good place' would have helped to understand the attraction of the man to his many admirers.
I think that had the balance been right, alot more of Cowper's poems and hyms being included and some more enlightenment on his personality when he was 'in a good place' would have helped to understand the attraction of the man to his many admirers.
November 14, 2020
Definitely of it’s time with little research and major presumptions. Treated every person as a character in a drama rather than real people. To say John Newton had no influence or no influence in Olney is pure fantasy miles from the truth.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews