More than a century after his death, John Clare is being recognized as a poet of importance and stature. Yet in his own day he was at best a marginal figure, briefly celebrated as a 'Peasant Poet' before declining into neglect and long years of decay in a Northampton asylum. His letters, drawn from the whole of his adult life until a few years before his death, provide a fascinating and frequently moving insight into his work and thoughts, charting his progress from youthful enthusiasm to poignant decline. Drawn from Mark Storey's complete Oxford edition of the Letters (1986), this edition preserves all Clare's idiosyncrasies of spelling and punctuation. The letters are fully annotated, and the book includes brief biographies of the major correspondents, and a chronology of Clare's life.
Reviews
'Clare's prose has a directness, warm domesticity, refreshing openness and remarkable ease and freedom' Day by Day
'Mark Storey has selected and edited his letters with discriminating diligence. A personality of extraordinary tenderness, charm and candour breathes from these pages.' Martin Fagg, Church Times
'will provide general reader and student alike with a compelling insight into the personal and professional tragedy of the Northamptonshire peasant poet's life ... Anyone who has admired Storey's painstaking scholarship in his compilation of the complete letters must also marvel at the skill necessary to make this selection.' Lynne Pearce, University of Durham, Notes and Queries
'This volume is essential reading' English Studies, Volume 72, Number 6, December 1991



Book Information
ISBN 9780198185857
Author John Clare
Format Hardback
Page Count 284
Imprint Clarendon Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 223mm * 144mm * 20mm