Hopkins: A Literary Biography

"To seem the stranger lies my lot, my life/Among strangers" begins one of the darkest and most overtly autobiographical of Hopkins's poems, written in Ireland a few years before his death. This major new biography of one of the greatest Victorian poets--more deeply researched, fully documented, and comprehensive than any before it--uses the intimate evidence of the poems, letters, and journals; White's personal knowledge of the places where Hopkins lived; and all surviving documents to explore the life of the priest-poet who constantly felt himself "the stranger" in his world. White investigates Hopkins's background and Oxford student life, and the Roman Catholic world that he entered, setting his development and the movement of his thought against the background of Victorian England. The turmoil of Hopkins's strangely exotic and unbalanced personality, which often worked against his changes of happiness and success, is fully explored, as is the effect of his religious profession on his highly original writings. White focuses particularly on the poems and journals as subtle autobiographical documents as well as some of the most remarkable works of art ever produced. His biography presents the fullest and most intriguing portrait of Hopkins ever, and will be required reading for all people interested in Victorian literature.