Thomas Gray: A Life

Description

This major biography of Thomas Gray (1716–1771), the first in nearly half a century, expands our knowledge of the life of the English poet and our understanding of his personality and influential body of works. Robert L. Mack incorporates recent—and often radically revisionary—scholarship on Gray, drawing on developments in eighteenth-century studies and gender studies, as well as on extensive original archival research into the life of the poet and his family. The result is an eloquent and enlightening book, sure to be the definitive biography of this great poet, a forefather of the Romantic Movement. The book provides important new information on Gray’s family and background and closely examines the domestic environment of his formative years. By investigating how his father’s abuse affected the poet, Mack casts new light on Gray’s personality—and on the way that personality consistently and invariably informed his writing. The author applies a revised understanding of the psychological and sexual tensions in Gray’s life to a close reading of his poetry and correspondence and finds a homoerotic desire lying just beneath the surface of almost all of Gray’s important writings, including his “Sonnet” on the death of Richard West, the “Eton Ode,” and his masterpiece, “Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard.” CONTENTS Plates Sources of Illustrations Acknowledgements Author's Note Introduction. NEVER AND ALWAYS: Stoke Pages, Buckinghamshire PART ONE CHAPTER ONE. THE GLORY OF THE WORLD IN A MOMENT: London and Cornhill 1716-1725 CHAPTER TWO. TAUGHT HARMONIES Eton 1725-1734 CHAPTER THREE. SARAG, THE DEAD CITY: Cambridge 1734-1738 CHAPTER FOUR. CREATION'S HEIRS The Grand Tour 1739-1741 PART TWO CHAPTER FIVE. THE LIQUID NO ON London, Stoke, and the Death of Richard West 1741-1742 CHAPTER SIX. A MILDER WARFARE: Return to Cambridge 1742-1749 CHAPTER SEVEN. THE PATH OF GLORY: The Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard 1749-1752 CHAPTER EIGHT. EXPLORING THE LYRE The Publication and Early Reception of the Pindaric Odes 1753-1759 CHAPTER NINE. INTERLUDE Bloomsbury and Studies in Norse and Welsh Poetry 1759-1761 PART THREE CHAPTER TEN. IN HARMLESS SOCIETY Cambridge and Travels 1761-1768 CHAPTER ELEVEN. GILDED HORRORS The Professorship of Modern Poetry, the Ode for Music, and the Tour of the Lake District 1768-1769 CHAPTER TWELVE. AMOROUS DELAY Charles Victor de Bonstetten 1769-1770 CHAPTER THIRTEEN. CONVERSING WITH SHADOWS Final Months and Death 1770-1771 EPILOGUE. WHERE WE START FROM BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX