- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Blackstaff Press Ltd; New edition edition (31 Mar 1992)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0856404888
- ISBN-13: 978-0856404887
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,103,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
He tells us a story, a living story, of Burns as it has never been told before. It is not stiff with interjected dates and place-names and occasions. No, it flows easily and mightily. --Scottish Field
A vivid, sympathetic and eminently readable account. --Oxford Mail --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
A vivid, sympathetic and eminently readable account. --Oxford Mail --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Product Description
This classic biographical novel based upon the early life of the great Scottish poet shows the early forces that shaped Burns and his work - the poverty and strict morality, the liberating experience of education, and his delighted awakening to the beauty of the natural world, and later to the allure of 'the lassies'.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first read this book several years ago when studying Burns at university (my mum was mad on Burns and has the whole set of Barke's books in hardback, bought in the fifties).
To me it set the record straight. Myth would have it that Burns was a drunkard, an uneducated lout and whoremonger who struck lucky with his scribblings. None of this is true. Burns was born into abject poverty, into a hardworking family whose luck was abysmal. His father harried the local labourers into hiring a 'dominie' or tutor for their sons, which must have severely strained the budget. Burns' sensitivity, passion and intelligence, plus his disdain for pompous authority, are obvious from the first. He is fun loving and romantic, with a strict moral code. And a talent that makes him 'The Immortal Memory'.
Yes, this is a novel, not a biography, and as such certain liberties with the truth may have been taken - Barke makes no apology for this. But in essentials, we have the early life of a man deservedly revered the world over for his work in Scots - and in English. Ploughman poet he may have been, but ignorant and coarse? Absolutely not. Barke's novel sequence was his life's work and illuminates the life of a genius - and you don't even have to be an expert in Burns' poetry to enjoy it.
Barke's prose can be a little heavy for modern tastes - hence 4 stars, not 5, but any lover of biography and/or historical fiction will be beguiled.
To me it set the record straight. Myth would have it that Burns was a drunkard, an uneducated lout and whoremonger who struck lucky with his scribblings. None of this is true. Burns was born into abject poverty, into a hardworking family whose luck was abysmal. His father harried the local labourers into hiring a 'dominie' or tutor for their sons, which must have severely strained the budget. Burns' sensitivity, passion and intelligence, plus his disdain for pompous authority, are obvious from the first. He is fun loving and romantic, with a strict moral code. And a talent that makes him 'The Immortal Memory'.
Yes, this is a novel, not a biography, and as such certain liberties with the truth may have been taken - Barke makes no apology for this. But in essentials, we have the early life of a man deservedly revered the world over for his work in Scots - and in English. Ploughman poet he may have been, but ignorant and coarse? Absolutely not. Barke's novel sequence was his life's work and illuminates the life of a genius - and you don't even have to be an expert in Burns' poetry to enjoy it.
Barke's prose can be a little heavy for modern tastes - hence 4 stars, not 5, but any lover of biography and/or historical fiction will be beguiled.
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