The Marvellous Boy: The Life and Myth of Thomas Chatterton - Softcover

Kelly, Linda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 057124842X ISBN 13: 9780571248421

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2009

Synopsis

In 1770, at the end of his tether, the seventeen-year-old poet Thomas Chatterton, penniless and starving, despairing of success and tormented by a sense of failure, committed suicide in his garret room. Within a few years he was transformed into a legend. In the dawning "Romantic Movement", he became a symbol of some of its most powerful preoccupations - suicide, youth and neglected genius. During the two ensuing centuries, Chatterton has become one of the most famous of literary suicides. To the Romantics in the nineteenth century, the premature death of this precocious genius became a source of inspiration. His suicide inspired Vigny's melodramatic play "Chatterton", and forty years later, Leoncavallo's opera spread to Italy. The Pre-Raphaelites, especially Rossetti, were fascinated by his death. In the twentieth century, the eccentric scholar and poet, E. W. Meyerstein, developed a lifelong passion for him. Linda Kelly explores the development, pervasiveness and astonishing persistence of the Chatterton legend, throwing new and revealing light on the writers and artists who admired him. 'A book that leaves out nothing important and yet keeps us reading like a novel' - John Wain.

About this title

About the Author:

Linda Kelly was born in 1936. Her books include Women of the French Revolution and The Young Romantics. She is co-editor of two anthologies, Proposals and Feasts. She worked as Travel Editor for Vogue for seven years, and has written for a number of papers, including the Times Literary Supplement and the Washington Post.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 057124842X
• ISBN 13: 9780571248421
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176