The World of Richard Dadd [Paperback]

Michael Mott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2005

THE WORLD OF RICHARD DADD is an intriguing collection of poetry concerning the rememberances of a dark era, that is playfully autobiographical and hauntingly dreamlike in it's vision.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Michael Mott (offers) a sensitive register of moods and thoughts that Dadd's strange and haunting imagery brings into being. -- Fred Chappell

Perfectly framed and rendered with intelligence and craft. -- Betty Adcock

With each collection (Michael Mott) reinvents and restores the wounded world. -- George Garrett

About the Author

Michael Mott has published nine collections of poetry, four novels, and an award-winning biography. Born in London, his father was English, his mother a sculptor from Denver, Colorado. He came to America in 1966 to act as Poetry Editor of The Kenyon Review. A Guggenheim Fellow, Mott was, twice, Writer-in-Residence at The College of William and Mary. He won the Allen Tate Prize in Poetry in 2002.

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: MARGIE, Inc. (July 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971904014
• ISBN-13: 978-0971904019
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,555,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The worlds of Richard Dadd and Michael Mott, May 25, 2006

By 

Kassandra2006 "Kassandra" (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World of Richard Dadd (Paperback)

Richard Dadd is probably best known for two things: his enigmatic and hallucinatory fairy paintings and the fact that he murdered his father.

In 'The World of Richard Dadd', Michael Mott reflects upon Dadd, the artist and the son, but intertwines this with thoughts about his own childhood in north London on the eve of the Second World War; a childhood shared by Thom Gunn to whom the book is dedicated.

The strands of the book are skillfully mingled, partly because they share a similar mood where dreamlike memory distilled by time. Mott evokes a childhood where parents are distant exotic beings, usually viewed through the upstairs banisters, where children climb monkey puzzle trees and dress up in their absent parents' clothes.

This is not to say this is a comfortable book. Mott is painfully honest about the patriarchal society in which he was brought up, and its consequences in the wider world - the shadow of war hangs over the book.

All in all, a thought-provoking collection from an accomplished poet, full of allusive and memorable images.

My one criticism is of the reproductions of Dadd's work inside the book - they are murky and hard to discern.