Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense

A Daily Telegraph , Times , Evening Standard , TLS and Spectator Book of the Year. Winner of the Hawthornden Prize. Edward Lear is well-loved for his 'nonsenses', from joyous limericks to great love songs, and for his wonderful natural history paintings, landscapes and travel writing. But although Lear belongs to the age of Darwin and Dickens, his genius for the absurd and his dazzling word-play make him a very modern spirit. He was also a man of great simplicity and charm - children loved him - yet his humour masked epilepsy, depression and loneliness. Jenny Uglow's beautifully illustrated biography brings us his swooping moods, passionate friendships and restless travels. Above all it shows how this uniquely gifted man lived all his life on the boundaries of disciplines and desires - an exile of the heart.

About the author

Jenny Uglow grew up in Cumbria and now lives in Canterbury. Her books include prize-winning biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and William Hogarth. The Lunar Men, published in 2002, was described by Richard Holmes as 'an extraordinarily gripping account', while Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick, won the National Arts Writers Award for 2007 and A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration was shortlisted for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize. The Pinecone, published in 2012, tells the story of Romantic visionary Sarah Losh and was described as 'a quiet masterpiece'. Jenny's most recent book, In These Times: Living in Britain through Napoleon's Wars, 1793-1815 was longlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. Jenny is Chair of the Council of the Royal Society of Literature.

Product details

• Authors: Jenny Uglow, Uglow Jenny
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 30.09.2018
• EAN: 9780571269556
• ISBN: 978-0-571-26955-6
• No. of pages: 643
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 41 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures, English, ARCHITECTURE / History / General, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literature: history and criticism, Literary studies: poetry and poets