Robert Gittings (1911–1992)

The best biography since Colvin's "Life". Like Colvin (whom he quotes lavishly) Gittings has produced a very readable and erudite biography. He has written several other biographies of and books about Keats, and has a deep knowledge and understanding of his subject. This book should really have been the last biography produced about Keats, for it seems to contain every bit of information one could ever need. Alas, there have been others... Plenty of quotes from poems and letters enliven the show more pages, and there is an extensive bibliography for those wishing to read more. show less

3274. Young Thomas Hardy (&) Thomas Hardy's Later Years, by Robert Gittings (read Dec 4, 1999) These two books were bound in one volume, so of course they only count as one book. I had back in October of 1982 read Michael Millgate's biography of Hardy, and was not sure why I was reading another one. But after a time this work caught me up, and I enjoyed the latter part of it thoroughly. Gittings' consideration of Hardy's poetry I found meaningful, and was struck by these two lines from show more Hardy's "Winter Words":
"Love is a terrible thing: sweet for a space,
And then all mourning, mourning."
Which I thought said something about Hardy's rather ego-centered life. show less

A play set in the eleventh century, about the hostage-taking of Alphege, archbishop of Canterbury, by the Vikings.

968 John Keats, by Robert Gittings (read 5 Oct 1968) While not as good a biography of Keats as Aileen Ward's biography, this is a good work. Keats' life is of great interest. I have read these biographies of him:

765 John Keats: The Making of the Poet, by Aileen Ward (read 13 Jan 1964) (National Book Award arts and letters prize for 1964)
968 John Keats, by Robert Gittings (read 5 Oct 1968)
1784 John Keats, by Walter Jackson Bate (read 25 June 1983) (Pulitzer Biography prize for 1964)