Blazing Star - The Life and Times of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

He was 'THE WICKEDEST MAN ALIVE'.
He went to Oxford University at the age of 12.
He slept with his first prostitute at 13.
He was an alcoholic by 14.
He was imprisoned in the Tower at 18.
He was acclaimed a war hero at 19.
He died of syphilis at the age of 33.
He was English history's first celebrity.
He was John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester: Poet, dandy and libertine.
BLAZING STAR is a compelling portrait of a remarkable and complex man, and of a cultural golden age that often spilled over into depravity.

About the author

ALEXANDER LARMAN is a historian and journalist. He is the author of Blazing Star (2014), the life of Lord Rochester, and writes for the Observer, the Telegraph and the Guardian, as well as the New Statesman and the Times Literary Supplement.

Summary

A thrilling portrait of the wild freedoms enjoyed at the court of Charles II, focusing on the most notorious man of the age, the scandalous Earl of Rochester.

Additional text

Challenges the accepted wisdom that has prevailed for centuries that Wilmot was a dastardly blighter in his conduct and a pornographer in his poetry, painting instead a portrait of one of English literature's brightest lights who died, as bright lights do, far too young' Good Book Guide.

Report

Insightful and illuminating... engagingly partisan and elegantly informative' The Times

Product details

• Authors: Alexander Larman, Larman Alexander
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 03.07.2014
• EAN: 9781781851098
• ISBN: 978-1-78185-109-8
• No. of pages: 408
• Dimensions: 163 mm x 245 mm x 40 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Biographies, autobiographies; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures, Biography: literary, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical, General and world history, Non Fiction, Biography: historical, political and military