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Sidetracks

Explorations of a Romantic Biographer

Author Richard Holmes
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Paperback
$23.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
5.23"W x 7.98"H x 0.94"D   | 12 oz | 28 per carton
On sale Dec 04, 2001 | 432 Pages | 9780679757719
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With this collection of short and fascinating biographical pieces, the award-winning biographer of Coleridge and Shelley offers a fascinating glimpse into the mysterious art of biography.

When researching, Richard Holmes has often become captivated by figures peripheral to his main subject, literary forays that he couldn’t resist. These tales–the forbidden love of John Stuart Mill, the bizarre novel of Oscar Wilde’s tragic grand-uncle, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s nightmarish yet cathartic final trip to Paris–are part of what comprises Sidetracks, a marvelously original that includes letters and travelogues, radio plays, essays, and minature biographies. This book is a rare literary feast and an exploration of the creative processes of one of our most preeminent biographers.
“Something like unanimous opinion now holds Richard Holmes to be our best living biographer.”–The Wall Street Journal

“No one explores biography’s metaphysical or for that matter technical aspects better than HolmesÉ. His books read like shouts of joy.”–New York Times Book Review

“These pieces undeniably confirm why Holmes has been setting new and challenging standards for how biographers approach their subjects, and they make for glorious reading indeed.”–Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
© Photographed by Stuart Clarke
Richard Holmes is the author of The Age of Wonder, which was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, won the Royal Society Prize for Science Books and the National Books Critics Circle Award, and was one of the New York Times Book Review's Best Books of the Year in 2009. Holmes's other books include This Long Pursuit, Footsteps, Sidetracks, Shelley: The Pursuit (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), Coleridge: Early Visions (winner of the 1989 Whitbread Book of the Year Award), Coleridge: Darker Reflections (a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist), and Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage (winner of the James Tait Black Prize). He was awarded the OBE in 1992. He lives in England. View titles by Richard Holmes
I. A Romantic Premontion
Introduction
Thomas Chatteron

II. Lost in France
Introduction
Monsieur Nadar
Gautier in London
Poor Pierrot
Inside the Tower

III. Five Gothic Shadows
Introduction
The Singular Affair of the Reverend Mr Barham
The Reverend Maturin and Mr Melmoth
M. R. James and Others
John Stuart Mill
Lord Lisle and the Tudor Nixon Tapes

IV. A Philosophical Love Story
Introduction
The Feminist and the Philosopher: A Love Story

V. Shelley’s Ghost
Introduction
Scrope’s Last Throw
To the Tempest Given

VI. Escapes to Paris
Introduction
Scott and Zelda: One Last Trip
A Summer with the Novelist
Letters from Paris
Voltaire’s Grin

VII. Homage to the Godfather
Introduction
Boswell’s Bicentenary
Boswell Among the Tulips
Dr. Johnson’s First Cat

About

With this collection of short and fascinating biographical pieces, the award-winning biographer of Coleridge and Shelley offers a fascinating glimpse into the mysterious art of biography.

When researching, Richard Holmes has often become captivated by figures peripheral to his main subject, literary forays that he couldn’t resist. These tales–the forbidden love of John Stuart Mill, the bizarre novel of Oscar Wilde’s tragic grand-uncle, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s nightmarish yet cathartic final trip to Paris–are part of what comprises Sidetracks, a marvelously original that includes letters and travelogues, radio plays, essays, and minature biographies. This book is a rare literary feast and an exploration of the creative processes of one of our most preeminent biographers.

Praise

“Something like unanimous opinion now holds Richard Holmes to be our best living biographer.”–The Wall Street Journal

“No one explores biography’s metaphysical or for that matter technical aspects better than HolmesÉ. His books read like shouts of joy.”–New York Times Book Review

“These pieces undeniably confirm why Holmes has been setting new and challenging standards for how biographers approach their subjects, and they make for glorious reading indeed.”–Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Author

© Photographed by Stuart Clarke
Richard Holmes is the author of The Age of Wonder, which was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, won the Royal Society Prize for Science Books and the National Books Critics Circle Award, and was one of the New York Times Book Review's Best Books of the Year in 2009. Holmes's other books include This Long Pursuit, Footsteps, Sidetracks, Shelley: The Pursuit (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award), Coleridge: Early Visions (winner of the 1989 Whitbread Book of the Year Award), Coleridge: Darker Reflections (a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist), and Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage (winner of the James Tait Black Prize). He was awarded the OBE in 1992. He lives in England. View titles by Richard Holmes

Table of Contents

I. A Romantic Premontion
Introduction
Thomas Chatteron

II. Lost in France
Introduction
Monsieur Nadar
Gautier in London
Poor Pierrot
Inside the Tower

III. Five Gothic Shadows
Introduction
The Singular Affair of the Reverend Mr Barham
The Reverend Maturin and Mr Melmoth
M. R. James and Others
John Stuart Mill
Lord Lisle and the Tudor Nixon Tapes

IV. A Philosophical Love Story
Introduction
The Feminist and the Philosopher: A Love Story

V. Shelley’s Ghost
Introduction
Scrope’s Last Throw
To the Tempest Given

VI. Escapes to Paris
Introduction
Scott and Zelda: One Last Trip
A Summer with the Novelist
Letters from Paris
Voltaire’s Grin

VII. Homage to the Godfather
Introduction
Boswell’s Bicentenary
Boswell Among the Tulips
Dr. Johnson’s First Cat

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