Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer [Paperback]

Richard Holmes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1996

Richard Holmes's great work of biographical exploration, rejacketed and republished alongside its sister volume 'Sidetracks'. In 1985, Richard Holmes published a small book of essays called 'Footsteps' and the writing of biography was changed forever. A daring mix of travel, biographical sleuthing and personal memoir, it broke all the conventions of the genre and remains ons of the most intoxicating, magical works of modern literary exploration ever published. Sleeping rough, he retraces Robert Louis Stevenson's famous journey through the Cevennes. Caught up in the Parisian riots of the 1960s, he dives back in time to the terrors of Wordsworth and of Mary Wollstonecraft marooned in Revolutionary Paris and then into the strange tortured worlds of Gerard de Nerval. Wandering through Italy, he stalks Shelley and his band of Romantic idealists to Casa Magni on the Gulf of Spezia.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Follow the footsteps of this absorbing and delightful author as he attempts to trace the paths of four sometimes intractable, but always fascinating, Romantic writers. Robert Louis Stevenson's travels through the Cevennes with a donkey; Mary Wollstonecraft's revolutionary Paris and friends; Percy B. Shelley's Italian exile (a postscript to Holmes's acclaimed Shelley biography); and Gerard de Nerval's deranged vision and sad pilgrimage are all presented with rigor, charm, and historical and personal sleuthwork. Holmes's interest in each biographical subject is palpable and seems at times a fixation. But he rewards the reader with a growing understanding of each writer's life, as well as much insight into the technique and art of biography. Enjoyable, informative reading for literati, this book is recommended for larger general and academic collections. Carol J. Lichtenberg, Washington State Univ. Lib., Pullman
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'This exhilarating book, part biography, part autobiography, shows the biographer as sleuth and huntsman, tracking his subjects through space and time.' Hilary Spurling, Observer 'Nothing is simple in this intricate, complicated and fascinating book, which is like a set of Russian dolls, biography containing travel-writing containing autobiography containing and so on!Holmes is indeed a biographer and a romantic in every sense.' Richard Boston, Guardian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (April 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679770046
• ISBN-13: 978-0679770046
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #689,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Holmes is Professor of Biographical Studies at the University of East Anglia. His is a Fellow of the British Academy, has honorary doctorates from UEA and the Tavistock Institute, and was awarded an OBE in 1992. His first book, 'Shelley: The Pursuit', won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1974. 'Coleridge: Early Visions' won the 1989 Whitbread Book of the Year, and 'Dr Johnson & Mr Savage' won the James Tait Black Prize. 'Coleridge: Darker Reflections' won the Duff Cooper Prize and the Heinemann Award. He has published two studies of European biography, 'Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer' in 1985, and 'Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer' in 2000.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Enthralling Romp Through The Haunted Past, January 11, 2001

By 

Daniel Myers (Greenville, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer (Paperback)

This is the kind of book at which Holmes, in my view, excels. I'm not that particularly fond of his painstaking mammoth biographies of Shelley and Coleridge because, well, they're too run-of-the-mill and not all that much fun to read.-In other words, just the opposite of books like this one. This type of book, where the relationship between Holmes and the author he is writing about is constantly in play add a mystery and a haunted quality inherent in the time elapsed between Holmes' time and the author's that keeps the readers attention constantly transfixed (or, at least, this reader's). As Holmes himself puts it, "The material surfaces of life are continually breaking down, sloughing off, changing, almost as fast as human skin." Examples: The passage on Shelley's view of the double, the "ghost of the living person" the view of which signified the shadow world invading this one; Shelley's view that this is what was happening to him just before he drowned himself is the most affecting passage I've read on Shelley's end, and together with the photograph of the Casa Magni, which I'd never actually seen, and whose setting Mary Shelley said caused them to be in touch with the unreal sent shivers up my spine. It's not to be missed.-The section on Nerval was also interesting, as were the others. Curiously, the same sort of thing seems to have affected Nerval "...Here began for me what I shall call the overflowing of dreams into real life." Both sections are excellent and Holmes' speculation that "Nerval's whole work was a form of suicide note" seems right on the mark. The other sections are intriguing as well, but these two haunted me the most. In a moment of brave self-exposure where Holmes is following Shelley's footsteps in Rome, he recounts a dinner where they toasted Shelley as a fellow-exile and his name "rang to the roof." Holmes writes, "I sat there looking at my plate dangerously close to tears. I...determined to write a book for people like them too, who would never read it, people who have lost most things except hope."-You've succeeded Mr Holmes.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tremendous glimpse into the world of biographers, July 11, 2000

By 

Kevin Brianton (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer (Paperback)

Beginning with a journey tracing Stevenson's walking tour in France, Holmes shows himself to be both a remarkable adventurer and writer. The thing that comes out clearly when he discovers the ruins of a bridge crossed by Stevenson is that the past is the past. And while it has an impact on the world today, it is gone. If you only read it for the first essay, it is well worth the money. The other essays explore other themes that affect biographers. A superb book that should be read by anyone interested in the mysrerious relationship between biographer and subject.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a truly addictive book, May 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer (Paperback)

This is one of the most addictive books that I have ever read - the language is rich and the stories are fascinating. Holmes interweaves his own experiences with short biographical sketches of Robert Louis Stevenson, Mary Wollstonecraft and Percy Shelley. A great book to take on a trip or vacation.