A LIFE OF KEATS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23366, 4 December 1937, Page 4

A LIFE OF KEATS

THE NEWLY-PUBLISHED MEMOIR

" The Life of John Keats," by Charles Armitage Brown. Edited by Dorothy Hyde Bodurtha and W. B. Pope. Oxford: The University Press (Sir Humphrey Milford); 12s.

Although this is described as a major biography of Keats, the actual text is only a memoir covering about 50 pages, the rest of the book being taken up with a lengthy introduction and notes. However, all lovers of Keats will welcome the book, for it contains the story of his life written by the man who lived with him during the creation of his greatest masternieces. The reason why it has remained unpublished for 100 years is made painfully clear in the introduction, which tells the long story of the wrangle as to who was to write the life of Keats. It was owing to ,this discord that, although Keats died in 1821. Brown remained silent for 16

years until in 1836 he delivered a lecture on " The Life and Poems of John Keats." The lecture seems to have formed the basis of this brief memoir. Unfortunately Brown had an obsession that the critics of Keats were largely responsible for his death, and his memoir consists for the most part of a bitter invective against the reviewers. New Zealand readers have a special interest in Charles Armitage Brown, for he migrated to this country in 1840 and died in New Plymouth two years later. Mr Horace Fildes, who died in Wellington recently, compiled a full biography of Brown, but unfortunately this has not yet been published. Several English writers have paid tribute to the researches of Mr Fildes as throwing light on the friendship between Keats and Brown. It is to be hoped that before long steps will be taken to publish the results of his labours, because of their intrinsic value and as a tribute to the memory of the author. W. D. S.