Reviews

This hagiography of John Donne is both enticing and disappointing. The excessive use of adjectives (apparently much reduced, yet not reduced enough) and biograper's insertion and her insistent voice detracted a lot from Donne's work and life.

The book is richly researched but oddly unquestioning - and at other times outright defensive to borderline historiography - of Donne. The age gap between him and Anne More is never mentioned (10 or 11 years, if she were 16 or 17), not is that of the marriage he arranged for his 20 year old daughter Constance to a man six years his senior (a popular actor, 57 years old). While there is an argument that is was of the time Rundell's prose is chock-full of modern day allusions and references, so why not note these age gaps? Likely because it does not suit her narrative and admiration of Donne.

It's a fine lay-person's introduction to the life of John Donne and his various reinventions, but stylistically and critically unsatisfying if you have studied his poetry or other works.