Shelley: The Pursuit

One of the most extraordinary biographies I have ever read, and probably the most passionate.I have long been a lover of the romantic poets, especially Keats and Byron, but had never been particularly attracted to Shelley's poetry. Nevertheless I was intrigued by the little I knew of him as a person, and piques by my ignorance, I purchased this book.Holmes, at the age of 29, also the age of Shelley's death, has written a book based on voluminous research, intimate knowledge of the localities he writes about, especially in Italy, and reveals widespread reading of those authors and texts important to Shelley, who read widely in the classics and philosophy, and who was a thinker and philosopher and indeed often a politician as much as a poet.Published in 1974, a very different time to the present, Holmes embraces the millenial aspirations of the Romantic era, echoed in many ways by the sixties and seventies. I found his book in some ways a companion piece to Edward Thompson's, 'The Making of the English Working Class,' a book which Holmes several times heaps praise upon, because like Thompson Holmes goes to enormous trouble to research the context of Shelley's hugely spirited political work, conducted over a period of years while he lived as a very young man in Britain.Holmes is fascinating on the subject of Shelley's relationship with his family of birth, and in particular his rancorous feud with his father over his inheritance which lasted almost for the rest of his life. Shelley was an immensely strong personality with wildly unconventional views which he never lost but merely tweaked from time to time. He believed and to some extent practised free love, to an extent still not wholly clear because of the destruction of evidence by those close to him after his death, throughout his life. He also violently condemned as did William Blake the repressive British government of the time.Holmes is equally fascinating on the details of Shelley's relationships with women and also male friends. He first married Harriet Westbrook and almost throughout the marriage lived with her and her sister Eliza. He left her to live with Mary Godwin, daughter of the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, and spent the rest of his life living with Mary but very close to her half sister Clair, and at various times a number of other women.Most fascinating of all, in the last few years of his life, is the relationship with Byron. Byron's much greater wealth, and the elegance of his lifestyle and poetry in the end exhausted Shelley, but he was not overwhelmed, and the story of these two giant personalities is a task Holmes attacks with brio.Shelley was a force of nature, but he was also - when he wanted to be, which was not always - a master of tact and diplomacy. His torrents of invective on matters personal and political were frequent, but tailored to the prevailing wind. No wonder in his last years he came to love sailing, too much to save his life.As I read this book I dipped into the poetry previously almost enitrely unknown to me, and for the record my favourite pieces are 'Julian and Maddolo,' and 'The Cenci,' because for me Shelley the poet is at his best as a storyteller, not as a pedagogue.Thankyou Mr Holmes.

I've still got about 200 pages to read but what an amazing experience, I don't want it to end. Shelley, The Pursuit has had me gripped for the last 3 weeks, every day looking forward to the next hour I can indulge myself with this fabulous book. It's not a short read at over 700 pages but so, so worth it. A book to totally immerse oneself in, even though you know the ending. Thoroughly researched, Holmes totallygets under the skin of Shelley, at times passionate, loving, politically challenging and admirably vociferous in his views, yet oddly misjudging of others feelings. I also have to keep reminding myself how young all the main characters are and what they achieved both in their private and professional lives so early on. The Pursuit is also very apt title, one has the constant impression of movement throughout Shelley's life, it's literally as though he cannot remain in one place, and the boom it often reeds as a travel journey of Italy, this only adds to its attraction. Highly, highly recommended. I feel a trip to Italy coming on...

Perhaps four stars is less than this blockbusting biography of Shelley deserves but compared to Holme's later work four is about right. At seven hundred and thirty pages this is a long read and yet there are elements that could have been expanded such as the treatment of Harriet westbrook the badly treated first wife and the nature of Shelley's difficulties with Byron. However the last chapter leading to the drowning in the gulf of spezia is full of pathos and reads like the climax to a novel leaving the reader wanting more. Shelley is an enigmatic creature: a strange mix of generosity and courage, blended with a selfish petulant egotism. His early political output reminds one of the French revolutionary St Just in it's self righteous bombast. it is difficult to fully like the Shelley that Holmes gives us but when the book ends we miss him and I think this is due to the way in which the life story and the poetry are blended. This is not easy to do but here the context of the poetic analysis is excellent and the verse serves to drive on and illuminate the life. Holmes is always readable and although I prefer the essay length that he uses in "Footsteps" this is a very enjoyable and enlightening read.One of the great skills of a biographer, particularly the biographer of poets is to capture the atmospherics of the verse and to quote a letter Shelly sent to Peacock Holmes makes " The leaves of Autumn shiver and rustle in the stream of the inconstant wind as it were like the step of ghosts."

Quite simply the most beautifully written and fascinating historical biography I have ever read. In fact the best book I have ever read. I have since purchased several other of Mr. Holmes' works - his two volumes on Coleridge, and his "The Age of Wonder".