21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting and sometimes compelling, January 24, 2005
This is a very good novel about the great poets of the Regency years - Byron, Shelley and Keats, and told from a very different perspective - that of the women from different walks of life and social standings, and who loved them. Some are quite famous in their own right (we have "Frankenstein" thanks to Mary Shelley), some, like Lady Caroline Lamb were considered quite scandalous, others lived far less prominent lives.
However, it is not a novel without flaws. There is quite a bit of focus on Fanny Brawne, who loved Keats, and yet that great poet doesn't enter the picture till quite late in the novel, and only briefly. Sometimes the novel can be seen as a little disjointed - some chapters chop and change between the characters and you have read some way before you realise who we are reading about.
And yet there are times when it is a beautiful book, and you feel quite drawn into the loves and lives of these beautiful and ultimately doomed people.
This is not a romantic novel by any stretch of the imagination, and indeed it seems there was very little romance in the loves of these great poets. But they certainly had strong women, and it is these women, and how they coped with the places in history, that makes it a good read.
As a spin off, it would be good to have a volume of poetry handy - I found that I wanted to look at Byron's "Childe Harold" on more than one occasion!
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Don't be afraid of the world. Square up to it. Knock it down.", November 28, 2005
Focusing on the women in the lives of the romantic poets--Byron, Shelley, and Keats--rather than on the poets themselves, Jude Morgan recreates the years from 1812 - 1824, during which time Mary Godwin, Augusta Leigh, Caroline Lamb, Claire Clairmont, and Fanny Brawne fall in love, encourage the poets in some of their finest work, and ultimately, learn to cope with the poets' premature deaths. Mary Godwin, daughter of journalist/philosopher William Godwin and early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, is the linchpin of this biographical novel. Falling in love with Percy Bysshe Shelley at age sixteen, Mary defies convention by running away to the continent with Shelley when his wife refuses to grant him a divorce.
In contrast to Shelley, Lord Byron has many lovers. Augusta Leigh, his half-sister and the wife of George Leigh, is terrified that her feelings for Byron will become public. Caroline Lamb, married to William Lamb, conducts a long affair with him, pursuing him even after he marries her cousin, Annabella Milbanke (mother of his daughter Ada). Claire Clairmont, stepsister of Mary Godwin Shelley, becomes his lover in Italy and the mother of another daughter, Allegra.
The story of Fanny Brawne and John Keats does not unfold until almost the end of the novel. As Keats seems not to have much direct connection with Byron and Shelley here, and as Fanny is far more conventional in personality than any of the other women, the addition of this story line feels somewhat disconnected and is not integrated into most of the action.
Author Jude Morgan recreates conversations and fleshes out the daily lives of these characters, creating scenes that are often dramatic and sometimes moving. His careful attention to detail and immense research create a full picture of the attitudes of the times, and the context in which these women lived. With five female characters, however, he sometimes changes focus unexpectedly, and the reader must pay careful attention to detail to figure out who is who in the changing scenes. Occasionally even the point of view changes unexpectedly--from the third person to first person.
For those interested in the romantic poets, Morgan's novel offers many new insights and fascinating glimpses of early nineteenth century life, as romanticism emerges from the neoclassicism of the past. He assumes, however, that the reader will bring some knowledge of the poets and their works to the novel, spending little time discussing the works themselves, and concentrating on relationships instead. Mary Shelley, Augusta Leigh, Caroline Lamb, and Claire Clairmont, all early feminists, flout convention and sacrifice all for love, often behaving more romantically than the poets. Carefully researched, Passion offers fascinating information within an uneven narrative structure. n Mary Whipple
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Romantics Brought to Life, January 15, 2006
Although this is an imperfect novel, Jude Morgan has done an amazing job of bringing the three great Romantic poets, Byron, Shelley and Keats, to life. I have studied their biographies and works extensively, and was happily surprised by the accuracy with which they are portrayed in this book. The invented dialogue, especially that of Byron, enlivens the book and makes it more compelling than a conventional biography. Yes, the book is choppy and sometimes hard to follow, and it is not structurally sound. But the characters are always interesting, and I wanted to keep on reading because of the inherent drama of the stories and the period. What I disliked from the beginning was the odd sentence structure and incessant use of colons after a single word at the beginning of sentences. That's the English teacher in me wishing for clarity and correctness. However, overall the book is a masterpiece of presentation of thrillingly unique characters in an age of romantic idealism.
Helen Bennett
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