So Idle a Rogue: The Life and Death of Lord Rochester [Paperback]

Jeremy Lamb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2005

One of the brightest and most outrageous luminaries at the court of Charles II, he was to drink himself to death by the age of 33. Famous for the obscenity of his amorous poems, he may also penned some of the most moving, witty and lyrical love poetry of all time. Lamb rescues the man who blazed through his short life in glory and tragedy, genius and despair.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeremy Lamb was a brilliant young historian who dedicated himself absolutely to research and writing. Several older historians wrote in to express their admiration for the book when it was first published.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: The History Press (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750939133
• ISBN-13: 978-0750939133
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,837,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a joke of a bio, January 2, 2006

By 

coriolana - See all my reviews

This review is from: So Idle a Rogue: The Life and Death of Lord Rochester (Paperback)

This is probably one of the most useless biographies of Rochester in print. The bibliography is rather dismal and, while the scholarship is adequate, there is nothing available in it that cannot be better found in Greene's Lord Rochester's Monkey or The Debt to Pleasure.

Most galling is the author's chronic harping on Rochester's alcoholism as a means to understand his verse. Last time I was in any institution of higher learning, fanciful modern analysis did not equate to literary criticism. Yes, we all know Rochester was a prodigious drinker in a time of prodigious drinkers. Lamb goes on for pages as though explaining what portion of the AA banner Rochester falls under can really pinpoint his genius. He forgets that the 17th century was a world of drink. Farmers started their day with a pound of bacon and pints of small beer. When observed in context with his time, Lamb utterly fails to make his case, saying more about himself, perhaps, than Rochester.

While his "findings" may have some small merit, they are not by any means the 'way' to either understand Rochester in the context of his world, or his poetry, which is transcendent of time, drink, or illness, venereal or otherwise.

Worse, there is a smug misogyny throughout the entire volume that set my teeth completely on edge. Lamb refers to "female students" and "women readers" with a condescension that is deplorable. I do not recall that gender had any bearing on scholarly literary analysis.

All in all, as a serious student of Rochester's poetry, I was insulted and felt swindled by a book that purports to be a biography and reads like a 12-step advertisement.

Pass on this and instead, read Lord Rochester's Monkey and The Debt to Pleasure. This is a waste of money.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Atrociously inaccurate and biased, November 15, 2007

By 

The Mad Lep - See all my reviews

This review is from: So Idle a Rogue: The Life and Death of Lord Rochester (Paperback)

If I could possibly rate this book any lower, I would. This is the most insulting, inaccurate piece of literary doggerel I have ever read in my life, made worse by the fact that it actually made it to print. The author has tried to take a modern view of the Earl's life, which is commended, but he has somehow managed to distort even the simplest facts about the poet's life and work. Even some of the poems cited in this book are not by Wilmot at all! If he cannot even get these facts correct, what hope is there for the correct telling of the man's personal life? The answer is none; the author's obsessional views on the "disease of alcoholism" have rendered this book into a blatant attempt to explain away the poet's faults by means of the old excuse "the bottle made him do it". This has been proved to be blatantly false, as anybody who has studied the Earl's life in-depth can see.
For those of you new or old to the Earl's life and work, wanting to read an accurate up-to-date account of his life, the best book for doing so is the modern and revised A Profane Wit : The Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, which can also be found for purchase on Amazon. I have read almost all of the literary works available on the Earl, so I can tell you from experience how offensive this book is to anybody who knows the real story. Do not waste your money on this trash; save it instead for the magnificently detailed "Profane Wit".
If there was a justice system for books, this one would get the electric chair.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This one feels like the author really knew the person, August 21, 2005

By 

Kazren "Kazren" (www.ohjohnny.net) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: So Idle a Rogue : The Life and Death of Lord Rochester (Paperback)

This is an excellent biography of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, the character Johnny Depp plays in "The Libertine."

I've read several books about Wilmot in the past two years, and I have enjoyed this more, gotten more out of it, and feel I have finally gotten a handle on the man who was so brilliant and so tragic.

The author, Jeremy Lamb, didn't just sit in some ivory tower, he traveled to where the Earl lived, worked and died. He has quotes from his contemporaries, his letters, his poetry and prose. And this is all very cleverly woven into a fascinating and gripping story of the Earl's life. Unlike the other rather scholarly works I've read, this one gets right into the personality of Wilmot, dissecting it, but not in a dry removed manner, rather it's as if you have an insight into the intriguing and paradoxical Earl.

I suggest you get this book if you want to have a more intimate glimpse into not only the life of John Wilmot, but his period in history and the fascinating people he lived with, loved, and even hated.