19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I wish I could give this book SIX stars (* * * * * *)!, May 30, 2002
I would give this book six stars if I could. It is one of my favorite books of all time. More than any other book I have ever read I learned about the subject of the biography (Hogarth in this case) because of the beautiful way the author placed him in his time. By learning about Hogarth's world we can learn so much about the artistic fashions of his time and how that influenced the way he made his art. We also learn about the influence Hogarth's artistic genius had in re-shaping that world and the artists who followed him.
We learn about his family ties to the court and his failed ambitions there. But his ambitions for his art were even higher and there he succeeded to our great benefit. We also learn about his quirky personality, how his friends described him, and their wonderful stories of their life with him. Hogarth was as amazing a character as any he drew.
The book is also full of wonderfully reproduced art in black and white and a generous number of works are reproduced in color. Ms Uglow gives us in depth and wonderfully insightful instruction about all these works. It is a big book, but one I believe you will always treasure having read. It is brilliantly written. This book has a prominent place in my library and one I urge everyone to read. It is a treasure.
Here is Uglow's recent and wonderful biography of Thomas Bewick:
Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A life and a world, March 18, 2002
By A Customer
Jenny Uglow chose wisely when she decided to write her Hogarth biography as an old-fashioned life-and-times.
Hogarth recorded his life in his art rather than in literary documents, but fortunately for his biographers, his art everywhere displayed his attitudes to, and his interaction with, his times. It's not surprising, therefore, that Uglow's sub-title is "A Life and a World".
And she renders that world of eighteenth-century London superbly. Want to know about deism, the Bangorian Controversy, the culturr of procuresses and brothels, the attitudes to women? Go for it - it's all there. Or perhaps you've forgotten what little you knew about the political system of the times, its aesthetic theories, the influence of The Spectator, or the impact of the opera on cultural life? Good - that's also there.
Not only is it there but it is also insinuated so smoothly into the biographical narrative that you're scarcely aware you're being instructed. Moreover, if the reviews I've read are representative, you may also be unaware that some of this instruction is couched in ravishingly beautiful prose. Re-read the sections on Gay's "The Beggar's Opera", Walpole's reputation and the culture of refinement and politeness, for example. Are you not in the hands of a writer who has the rhythms of classic English prose throbbing through her veins? Not convinced? Read it aloud.
At his best, Hogarth was a portraitist of genius. At her best, so is Jenny Uglow. Gaze upon her brilliant joint portrait of Hogarth and Fielding in Chapter 9, but be sure to gaze in awe.
And the mention of Henry Fielding is a reminder that Uglow has already written a study of him, as well as biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot. Presumably, she has been steeped in the culture of English literature. And it shows. Her analyses of Hogarth's works are infused with that attention to detailed perception and critical interpretation that dominated academic "close reading" literary criticism decades ago. They draw attention to details you've never noticed before and fill in historical and biographical background you've never been privy to.
This biography is a wonderful read for anyone interested in Hogarth the artist, or for anyone fascinated by Hogarth, the tough-minded, opportunistic, satirical subversive. William Hazlitt captured the essence of the artist in eight words when he said Hogarth was "carried away by a passion for the ridiculous" - a point well supported by the dozens of reproductions threaded through the text. Jenny Uglow boils down the essence of the man when she says that obedience and submissiveness were never his virtues, a point supported by the sharply written anecdotes that pepper the narrative.
She needs more space to capture the spirit of the times, but capture it she does in the many passages of historical background and the pen portraits of London. (Don't miss the street walk at the beginning of Chapter 15.)
After spending 20 hours or so in Jenny Uglow's model of Hogarth's world, you may, like me, be reluctant to the real one...of cooking and cleaning and...oh, no! ...I can't stand it: I'm going back to Southwark Fair and the Harlot's Progress and, yes, even to Satan, Sin and Death!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Monumental, August 10, 2003
This review is from: Hogarth: A Life and a World (Paperback)
William Hogarth, though one of the finest artists of his time, was still very much a man of his time. His thoughts, his art, and his life do not transcend history -- to understand him and his work, it is necessary to put them in the context of the day. So Jenny Uglow paints a thorough and vivid picture of the London of the early to mid 1700's, from politics to pop culture, and shows us Hogarth's place in it. That is the reason this book is so huge -- it really is a snapshot of Hogarth's world, just as the subtitle suggests.
Another reason for the focus on Hogarth the artist and the man of his time is that there is relatively little information on Hogarth's personal life. But from what Uglow can show us, Hogarth was a pugnacious, vulgar, vain little homunculus, so too much study of his personality might have detracted from an appreciation of his accomplishments and ideals, both of which were sterling. It is probably for the best that we see Hogarth through the lens of his work and his time, as this is where his greatness lies.
And this book's greatness lies in its portrait of London in the eighteenth century, which is detailed, gossipy, and endlessly fascinating, running the gamut of events from lofty political doings at court to pop-culture crazes like Mary Tofts, the hoaxer who claimed to have given birth to rabbits. In her biography of London's most popular artist of his time, Jenny Uglow brings the entire city to brilliant life.
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