Hats off, please, to Katherine Rundell, who has written a book about John Donne that can stand toe-to-toe with John Carey, something I would not have thought achievable until I read Rundell’s first page, then her second, then her third, and so compulsively on to the end. If I didn’t have a book of my own to worry about I would have simply turned to the front and started again when I finished. Every page is interesting, witty, informative, has a crackling sentence to light it up, or all four; Rundell has the ability to move smoothly between academic narrative and sophisticated millennial speak. Her heroine when she was young was
But he is much too much the aristocrat to write a graceful pentameter line. I believe Jonson said he should be hanged for flouting the meter. His reputation only climbed when people stopped caring about the meter.
But he is much too much the aristocrat to write a graceful pentameter line. I believe Jonson said he should be hanged for flouting the meter. His reputation only climbed when people stopped caring about the meter.