- Paperback: 482 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (6 Jan 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006387594
- ISBN-13: 978-0006387596
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 846,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
This biography illuminates and explores the complexities and contradictions of Burns's character and personality, untangling the myth from the legend. Based on new evidence from 700 letters Burns wrote during his life, McIntyre concentrates on the circumstances of the writing of poetry itself, and paints a vivid picture of Burns's emotional and impulsive political views, the cruelty and gentleness of which he was capable, stressing the importance and the quality of the satirical poetry as well as the unforgettable love poetry immediately associated with his name.
From the Back Cover
No other poet excites such fanatical – and sometimes ignorant – devotion as Robert Burns. "What an antithetical mind!" Lord Byron wrote of Scotland's most famous poet: "Tenderness, roughness – delicacy, coarseness – sentiment, sensuality – soaring and grovelling – dirt and deity – all mixed up in that compound of inspired clay!"
Ian McIntyre's biography, marking the bicentenary of Burns's death, strips away myth and legend and explores what lies beneath. Based meticulously on documentary and archival sources, McIntyre offers a more extensive evaluation of Burns's songs and poetry than most previous biographers and stresses the importance and quality of the satirical verse as well as the haunting love poetry for which he is best known. McIntyre's balance between scepticism and enthusiasm ensures that the "lewd, amazing peasant of genius" emerges clearer, less idealized, more sharply appreciated – and perhaps more truly great – than from any previous biography.
"If you read Burns, then buy this. If you don't read Burns, then start"
ECONOMIST
"Ian McIntyre transports you absolutely into the world of his subject… A shrewd, clear, comprehensive and wonderfully readable portrait of Burns as fallible man and gifted poet."
A.C. Grayling, 'Financial Times'
"Ian McIntyre has done Burns justice, all the more so because he is never blind to his weaknesses. The man lives in his pages, and what more can you ask of a biography?"
ALLAN MASSIE, 'Daily Telegraph'
“McIntyre's rigorously detailed, compellingly told life will surely emerge as the best history to date of this charming and contradictory genius."
JOHN McEWEN, 'Spectator'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Ask ten people about Burns and you'll get ten different descriptions. Like John Lennon in our own time, people see him as a friend as well as a hero, and read into his life whatever they want to see there. As with Lennon, he appeals both to the discerning and to the crowd - only the discerning think, of course, that the crowd likes him for the wrong reasons.
Ian McIntyre tries to cut through all that, not attempting either to deify or rubbish him; giving him his due for his achievements and better qualities, but not afraid to censure or laugh at him when his actions warrant it. The fact is that Burns shared the poor man's necessity of keeping in with the great. Again like Lennon (and Dickens), though he easily got worked up about hypocrisy or injustice, he had little in the way of definite principles; and if the wind veered round to another quarter he readily changed his mind. His real concerns were those closest home: local politics, the influence of religion, family, women and the crack. Especially women: with whom, throughout his adult life, he exchanged passion, suffering and shame - but not often understanding.
In a word, he was no superman; his life was in many ways a very ordinary one. What makes him great is precisely his ability to express the struggles and joys of ordinary people in poetry and song.
McIntyre largely allows Burns to speak for himself, with substantial excerpts from his poems and letters. He's also happy to quote the most apt observations of Burns' many previous biographers; but the framework is entirely his own. He brings to vivid life, not only Burns himself, but the whole panorama of eighteenth-century Scotland with its wealth of crusted characters.
The Scots dialect of many of Burns' works, which has caused Scotland to clutch him the more fiercely to its bosom, has remained an obstacle to Standard English readers. But it's really not that difficult, and well worth the effort. So to conclude, I can't do better than repeat the words of one of the book's original reviews: `If you read Burns, get this. If you don't read Burns, then start.'
Ian McIntyre tries to cut through all that, not attempting either to deify or rubbish him; giving him his due for his achievements and better qualities, but not afraid to censure or laugh at him when his actions warrant it. The fact is that Burns shared the poor man's necessity of keeping in with the great. Again like Lennon (and Dickens), though he easily got worked up about hypocrisy or injustice, he had little in the way of definite principles; and if the wind veered round to another quarter he readily changed his mind. His real concerns were those closest home: local politics, the influence of religion, family, women and the crack. Especially women: with whom, throughout his adult life, he exchanged passion, suffering and shame - but not often understanding.
In a word, he was no superman; his life was in many ways a very ordinary one. What makes him great is precisely his ability to express the struggles and joys of ordinary people in poetry and song.
McIntyre largely allows Burns to speak for himself, with substantial excerpts from his poems and letters. He's also happy to quote the most apt observations of Burns' many previous biographers; but the framework is entirely his own. He brings to vivid life, not only Burns himself, but the whole panorama of eighteenth-century Scotland with its wealth of crusted characters.
The Scots dialect of many of Burns' works, which has caused Scotland to clutch him the more fiercely to its bosom, has remained an obstacle to Standard English readers. But it's really not that difficult, and well worth the effort. So to conclude, I can't do better than repeat the words of one of the book's original reviews: `If you read Burns, get this. If you don't read Burns, then start.'
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Burns without apologies
12 Oct 1999
An excellent biography of the great Scottish poet and songwriter. It sits proudly on my bookshelf next to the Burns biography by Mackay. Much blather has been written about Burns, of course, and in a crowded field, I think these two books stand out. A worthwhile purchase.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Very good research, poor writing
25 Oct 2002
The author performed an incredible amount of extensive research using primary sources. In _Dirt and Deity_ he also dispels many of the legends associated with Burns in the past. However, the book suffers a major shortcoming: the book is written like a stream of events, many of them unrelated, rather than in coherent phases. There are chapters, of course, but McIntyre does not summarize or "re-cap" each one (or any of them, really). This leads to confusion and a lack of coherence in the reader's mind.
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