John Clare (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Jonathan Bate
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1793-1864
- Setting: Northamptonshire, in central England
- Principal Characters: John Clare, Mary Joyce, Martha “Patty” Turner, Edward Drury, John Taylor, Eliza Emmerson, Octavius Gilchrist, Earl Fitzwilliam, Admiral Radstock
- Subjects: Authors or writers, Nineteenth century, Literature, Poetry or poets, Mental illness, England or English people, Modernization, Great Britain, Industrialization
John Clare’s life is perhaps the most unusual of that of any major English poet. Born in 1793 into a family of impoverished farm workers who scratched a living from the only moderately productive fields of Northamptonshire in the English Midlands, Clare was able to achieve a level of poetic excellence that earned him the admiration of his country’s leading literary lights. After a short period of widespread fame and moderate fortune, however, Clare’s declining physical and mental health led to his incarceration in an asylum, where he spent his last years in uncomprehending...
[The entire page is 1814 words long]
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