John Donne: The Reformed Soul: A Biography [Hardcover]

John Stubbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2007

"Will reveal Donne to a new generation...[and] propel John Stubbs into the first rank of biographers."—Peter Ackroyd

Metamorphosing from scholar to buccaneer, from outcast to establishment figure, John Donne emerged as one of the greatest English poets, concentrating the paradoxes of his age within his own crises of desire and devotion. Following Donne from Plague-ridden streets to palaces, from the taverns on the Bankside to the pulpit of St. Paul's, John Stubbs's biography is a vivid portrait of an extraordinary writer and his country at a time of bewildering and cruel transformation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For his first book, Stubbs has produced a biography of the enigmatic, conflicted poet familiar today to many people mostly thanks to a single, lovely line: "No man is an Island, entire of it self." John Donne—born in 1572, at the outset of the most politically tumultuous and religiously violent era in English history—searched throughout his life for passage to a continent, to find a homeland, to involve himself, as he put it, in mankind. Beginning life as a secular Catholic, Donne ended it as a pious Protestant priest; a dissolute young man, he evolved into a serious intellectual of delicate demeanor; a swashbuckler who fought against Spain for loot and adventure, he buckled down and became one of the finest poetical craftsmen of the Renaissance; a promiscuous loner once focused on making money and powerful friends, he married for love and left it all happily behind. Throughout his life, Stubbs shows, Donne was a study in paradoxes, and one of the strengths of this book is his ready acknowledgment of his subject's contradictions. "Part of the job of this biography," writes Stubbs, "is to trace the strands between these personae and point out the unity underlying them." He succeeds admirably. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* The greatest English metaphysical poet was and wasn't a man of letters, as Stubbs shows in as engaging a work of scholarship as a biography could ever be. Donne (1572?-1631) was more obviously a lifelong bureaucrat than an author. Initially hampered by his family's Catholicism, he studied law. He fought with Essex at Cadiz and Raleigh in the Azores, got a plum secretarial post, but fell in love with a wealthy squire's daughter. Their elopement brought immediate dismissal and years of scraping by. Only after Ann Donne's death did he take holy orders and rise swiftly to the deanship of St. Paul's Cathedral. He had written poetry since his late teens. Circulated in manuscript, it made him famous in society, enough so to allow Donne a sideline in writing commissioned verse that kept him afloat during the lean years. Adroitly employing Donne's poems to illuminate his life and arguing that Donne was always animated by his vision of the interdependency of all human beings, Stubbs opens a large window on the most durably fascinating society in English history. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1St Edition edition (April 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393062600
• ISBN-13: 978-0393062601
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Island, May 11, 2007

By 

Christian Schlect (Yakima, Washington/USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Donne: The Reformed Soul: A Biography (Hardcover)

The complex life of a former rake, politico, and then dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. And, above all, a master of the written word. The author of this biography writes in a lively style that does credit to his subject.

I do not usually think "Afterwords" are justified. In this case, this device provides for a nicely done close, with its linkage between Dr. Donne and our age's great physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer. (Dr. Donne's words still speak to our largely unchanged human condition.)

By a young scholar, John Stubbs. This is an excellent first book.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First rate bio, July 15, 2007

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Pip "ppsm1" (Abbotsford, British Columbia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Donne: The Reformed Soul: A Biography (Hardcover)

Biography can be so tedious and boring but I think we have entered into an age of the Biography as art form. And I feel the Donne by Stubbs is a fresh example of the new biographers who are grounded not only in the material but also in writing skillfully enough to keep the reader entranced. When I think John Donne I think Milton and Spencer and I think of boring school days and relentless English courses. Stubbs does us a great service in bringing Donne back to life. Some found this book repetitive but I feel the repetitiveness serves the purpose well here as it weaves a tapestry of a rich life fully lived. And given the difficulty of the topic reminds the reader of previous territory covered. Stubbs should win some awards for this sterling bio. If this be his first let this not be his last!

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Read, May 31, 2007

By 

Tim Challies (Oakville, Ontario) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John Donne: The Reformed Soul: A Biography (Hardcover)

I have long had a bit of a fascination with John Donne. A poet and eventual clergyman who lived from 1572-1631, Donne's poems are among my favorites. His Holy Sonnets have given me much cause to think and his early works, so often sexual and vulgar, have shown a man who underwent a clear and profound transformation in his life. From writing poetry which described forbidden and clandestine affairs that involved bribing servants, hushing siblings, and sneaking past parents in order to consummate love, Donne progressed to poetry celebrating Christ and his triumph over death.

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
...
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Donne was born into an English Roman Catholic family at a time when belonging to the Roman church could and often did carry grave consequences. Though his father died while Donne was only a young boy, he still received a good education and soon learned of his ability to mold language. He also learned of his ability as a lawyer and a statesman and soon converted to the Anglican Church in order to enhance his career prospects. Proudly profligate, Donne spent his youth and early adulthood attempting to satisfy every lust of his flesh. Yet in an age where marriages were strictly arranged by fathers to further their own ends, Donne secretly married for love and was to suffer the consequences of such an uncouth arrangement for the rest of his life. After trying unsuccessfully to rise through the ranks in government service, he eventually became a priest and spent much of his career as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Though a number of his sermons and works of prose has survived, Donne is known today as being one of the greatest English poets. He is remembered in common phrases he coined such as "no man is an island," and "know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

John Donne: The Reformed Soul is a new account of Donne's life by John Stubbs, a young scholar from England. It relies equally upon previous biographies and the record of Donne's life as it is found in his prose and poetry. In a biography of a poet, we depend a great deal on the ability of the author to interpret the poetry. If he misinterprets the man's writing, he misinterprets his life, and especially so when so much of Donne's poetry, and his early poetry in particular, was autobiographical. On the whole, though I am largely unqualified to make such judgments, I felt that Stubbs was accurate in his interpretations and presented Donne as he appears in his works. Where I had a little bit less confidence was in the author's understanding of Donne's theology. Donne lived in a time of great political and ecclesiastical complexity, a time when religion and politics were hopelessly intertwined. Thus it can be difficult to separate what Donne truly believed from his studies of Scripture and what he almost had to believe in order to maintain his position. And, of course, in a book of this sort we get only a small glimpse into Donne's theology through his surviving sermons. The sermons and poetry combine to provide a glimpse into an odd, uneven faith that seemed to yearn for much of the Catholicism Donne had left behind and also yearned for God to be someone other than who He reveals Himself to be. Whether Donne truly knew and loved the God of the Bible is difficult to know and certainly not ours to judge. Reading his works, though, presents enough confusion and slightly unorthodox theology that it becomes quickly apparent why Donne is known as a poet and not as a great Christian or theologian.

This biography is a long read and certainly not always an easy one. It turns often (and obviously) to seventeenth century language and this can take time and effort to unravel. Yet the book is clearly well-written and is a rewarding read, even if it can be complex. In the early stages the book is really quite sensual as Stubbs moves through Donne's years as a philanderer, a man who enjoyed the thrill of the chase but who quickly tired of the women he caught and who subsequently moved on to others. He occasionally employs harsh language in giving the sense of the words Donne and other poets used in their poetry. The latter portions aptly describe Donne's life in the context of the fascinating period in which he lived out the last years of his life.

John Donne: The Reformed Soul is not the kind of biography that would likely be written by a Christian or published by a Christian publisher, even if does deal with a Christian figure. Yet it is an interesting biography and a good one that has been well-reviewed by many notable publications. It is well worth reading for anyone who has an interest in the great poet John Donne.