Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%
Biography

A Mind Jumping Like a Flea

A new biography of George Herbert
by Ian Donaldson
August 2014, no. 363

Music at Midnight: The life and poetry of George Herbert by John Drury

Allen Lane, $49.99 hb, 416 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

Disdaining the opening moves traditionally associated with literary biography – the expected orderly progress through ancestry, parentage, birth, schooling, juvenilia – John Drury’s masterly new account of the life and poetry of George Herbert begins instead with the poem that Drury sees as Herbert’s finest work, written in mid-career, ‘Love (III)’. Herbert designed this poem as the culminating piece in the collection upon which his poetic reputation would come ultimately to rest, The Temple (1633).

 


Continue reading for only $10 per month.
Subscribe and gain full access to Australian Book Review.

Already a subscriber? .
If you need assistance, feel free to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..



Music at Midnight: The life and poetry of George Herbert by John Drury

Allen Lane, $49.99 hb, 416 pp

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.


From the New Issue

Science Under Siege: Defending science from dark forces by Michael Mann and Peter Hotez

by Ian Lowe

51 Alterities: Poetry as vibe, not polemic by Keri Glastonbury

by David McCooey

You May Also Like

by Tim Howard

How I Became the Mr Big of people smuggling by Martin Chambers

by Simon Collinson

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.

Submit comment