A dazzling and boldly original biography by Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate and the celebrated biographer of Larkin and Keats. Thomas Griffiths Wainewright was an ingenious and unscrupulous criminal. In 1828 he inherited the handsome family home, while successive legacies allowed him to maintain a flamboyant lifestyle. Meanwhile, within the space of a few years, three of his relatives died in suspicious circumstances. Eventually tried and arrested, Wainewright was transported for life to Tasmania.
Yet he had lived at the centre of the Romantic world. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and painted Byron's portrait. He was good friends with Henry Fuseli, William Blake and Charles Lamb, and knew John Clare, William Hazlitt, Thomas de Quincey and John Keats. He was known as amiable, kind, and good-hearted. Combining the form of a 'confession' with notes, asides and illuminations, Wainewright the Poisoner strips away the layers of legend and restores Wainewright to his own voice, capturing his dandified style, his charm as well as his callousness, his wit as well as his wantonness - and his deadly unreliability.
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This is a bold departure by Motion, and sometimes it works brilliantly: particularly in the latter chapters, where we follow the protagonist as he is transported to Van Diemen's Land. Motion often manages passages of a narrative brilliance and poetic intensity: the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" style shooting of an albatross from the prison ship, for instance; or Wainewright's lyrical apprehension of the sounds of the Australian port, "a diminuendo as men and women going home to their families, and an undertow of big warehouse doors being drawn shut, of wicks purring as they were turned down in lamps". On other occasions the reader can feel that Motion is introducing facts rather awkwardly to flesh out his subject. We can imagine the narrator hurrying himself along with a "now I have stammered long enough", but can we really imagine him adding "(I never did stammer, just a lisp, occasionally)"? However, Motion uses all the vividness and subtlety at his command to convey the curious mixture of the appealing and the appalling in Wainewright's make-up, and to illustrate his thesis "that good and evil grow on the same stem". "How does a person imagine his own brain?" Motion's Wainewright wonders: "to one it might resemble a newfangled machine composed of rods and pistons, giving a whiff of steam as a notion is driven forward. To another it might be a calm lake, troubled only by the shadow of a cloud...The idea I have of my own mind is this: it is a labyrinth".
Overall, Motion's command of an absolutely convincing 19th-century idiom is a marvel to read. An intriguing experiment in biographical writing. --Adam Roberts
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Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780571205462
Book Description Condition: New. 1st edition. Paperback, F. 305pp, 16pp b/w plates, index, a nice fine copy. New. Biography of the society gent, painter & heir Thomas Griffiths Wainewright [ 1794 - 1847 ] who poisoned 3 of his relatives to ensure his flamboyant lifestyle could continue. He was transported to Tasmania in 1837. 300 grams. Seller Inventory # 20888
Book Description Condition: New. 1st edition. Paperback, F. 305pp, 16pp b/w plates, index, a nice fine copy. New. Biography of the society gent, painter and heir Thomas Griffiths Wainewright [ 1794 - 1847 ] who poisoned 3 of his relatives to ensure his flamboyant lifestyle could continue. He was transported to Tasmania in 1837. 300 grams. Seller Inventory # 20891
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Thomas Griffiths Wainewright was the toast of the Romantic world. An artist, poet and writer, he exhibited at the Royal Academy, painted Byron's portrait and gave lavish dinner parties for the likes of Blake, Lamb and Fuseli. He was universally known for his kindness and good nature - until three of his relatives died in suspiciously similar circumstances. He was good friends with Henry Fuseli, William Blake and Charles Lamb, and knew John Clare, William Hazlitt, Thomas de Quincey and John Keats. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780571205462
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780571205462
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. Wainewright the Poisoner.Motion, Sir Andrew, Verna.Condition: New, may have slight shelf wear. Seller Inventory # 003158
Book Description Condition: New. The author evokes Wainewright the poisoner's double life in a biography that takes the form of a confession. He strips away the layers of legend and restores Wainewright to his own voice, capturing his energy, charm, callousness, wit and wantoness. Num Pages: 336 pages, 16pp b&w halftones. BIC Classification: 1DBKE; BGH; JKV. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 197 x 128 x 27. Weight in Grams: 290. 2001. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # 9780571205462
Book Description Condition: New. The author evokes Wainewright the poisoner's double life in a biography that takes the form of a confession. He strips away the layers of legend and restores Wainewright to his own voice, capturing his energy, charm, callousness, wit and wantoness. Num Pages: 336 pages, 16pp b&w halftones. BIC Classification: 1DBKE; BGH; JKV. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 197 x 128 x 27. Weight in Grams: 290. 2001. Paperback. . . . . Seller Inventory # 9780571205462
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. He was good friends with Henry Fuseli, William Blake and Charles Lamb, and knew John Clare, William Hazlitt, Thomas de Quincey and John Keats. Seller Inventory # B9780571205462
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 336 pages. 7.83x5.04x1.10 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0571205461