In honour of Rupert Brooke's birthday, 3rd August, I have compiled a collection of books about his life and works. "Few writers have provoked as much excessive praise and scornful condemnation as English poet Rupert Brooke. Handsome, charming, and talented, Brooke was a national hero even before his death in 1915 at the age of 27. His poetry, with its unabashed patriotism and graceful lyricism, was revered in a country that was yet to feel the devastating effects of two world wars. Brooke's early death only solidified his image as "a golden-haired, blue-eyed English Adonis."
Forever England
The life of
Rupert Brooke
"For many, Rupert Brooke is the embodiment of a generation that was all but wiped out between 1914 and 1918. His fame was largely brought about by the words of one of his sonnets, "If I should die, think only this of me/There is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England". This thought was a focal point for his generation.
Brooke died in 1915, on his way to fight in Gallipoli. In this book the author explores Brooke's life from his days at Rugby, to his time in North America and the South Seas. The inspiration and influences behind many of his poems are explored through the examination of his circle of friends, politics and love life"
The Complete Poems
of
Rupert Brooke
"The Complete Poems of Rupert Brooke, an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier". He was also known for his boyish good looks, which were said to have prompted the Irish poet W. B. Yeats to describe him as "the handsomest young man in England".
Life, Death and Myth
Rupert Brooke
"Paragon of youthful beauty, romantic symbol of a lost England, and precociously gifted poet, Rupert Chawner Brooke died in a hospital ship off the Aegean island of Skyros in April 1915, aged just 27. All England mourned his passing. But behind the glow of myth lies a darker reality. At the height of his promise a disappointment in love triggered a mental and physical collapse that brought his inner complexities to the surface. Letters reveal a man who was sexually ambivalent, misogynistic, anti-Semitic - and sometimes alarmingly unstable.
This revised edition of Nigel Jones's admired biography, including an account of a previously unknown affair of Brooke's, reveals a more conflicted and troubled individual than the gilded Adonis of English literary myth."
Rupert Brooke
A Biography
"This magnificent biography is the standard account of one of the legendary figures of early twentieth-century England. Behind the image of the 'young Apollo, golden haired' is revealed a man far more complex and radical than is popularly supposed. He emerges from these pages as a wit, a scholar, deeply read, a partisan Socialist, and as the focus of many aspects of the anti-Victorian mood of the years leading up to 1914. The romantic legend is set in its human context of struggle, perplexity and suffering."
‘Makes it possible to see what Brooke was really like as a man . .. It adds to the meaning of his poetry.' John Betjeman, The London Magazine
"Hassall was one of Brooke's three literary trustees. He had access to a mass of unpublished documents, and he worked on them devotedly. The result is a scholarly, massive and original life which, at last, really shows us Brooke as a man...Those who take a serious interest in English literature, particularly in the poetry of the First World War, cannot afford to miss it."
The Collected Poems
of
Rupert Brooke
"A collection of verse from the English poet, who at the outbreak of World War I joined the Royal Naval Division, served at Antwerp, and was in the Dardanelles expedition when he died of blood poisoning at the island of Skiros. Handsome and athletic, Brooke was also charming, intellectual, and witty, and was universally sought in society. His early fame and tragic death have made him an almost legendary figure and he is remembered as the War Poet."
The Great Lover
by
Jill Dawson
"In the summer of 1909, seventeen-year-old Nell Golightly is the new maid at the Orchard Tea Gardens in Cambridgeshire when Rupert Brooke moves in as a lodger. Famed for his looks and flouting of convention, the young poet captures the hearts of men and women alike, yet his own seems to stay intact. Even Nell, despite her good sense, begins to fall for him. What is his secret?
This captivating novel gives voice to Rupert Brooke himself in a tale of mutual fascination and inner turmoil, set at a time of great social unrest. Revealing a man far more complex and radical than legend suggests, it powerfully conveys the allure - and curse - of charisma."
Rupert Brooke's
Grantchester
"Two long-standing residents of Grantchester have produced a lovely book in anticipation of the centenary, in 2012, of Rupert Brooke's famous poem The Old Vicarage, Grantchester.
The book celebrates the poem and the village that was its inspiration. It will be a delight to those who know the poem already, and a good introduction to those who do not, in particular the younger generation. It contains the full text of the poem, a short biography of Rupert Brooke and history of Grantchester, and an explanatory commentary on each section of the poem. It is illustrated on each page by beautiful and evocative photographs of the village and its surroundings."
I hope you have found something of interest amongst this collection of books, but if not, there may be something more to your tastes in the Compendium's Library.
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