Customer Reviews
A beautiful book - By: , 23 Jan 2006 
Once more, Roy Foster has proved that he is not only a brilliant academic but also able to write in a pleasant style. His book provides great insight into the life & works of W.B. Yeats. The attention the biographer pays to details & the anecdotes are what makes this volume a 'must' for anyone interested in this great Irish writer.
Very often with famous writers like Yeats, on whom too much has been written, the risk is for a biography to repeat the same facts over & over again. You will be surprised after reading Foster's book to discover new arresting episodes in each chapter. This book is not only for the erudite, it will please anyone who wants to learn more about Yeats, & you will be surprised to find how much you have actuallly learned on Yeats, & that without ever feeling bored or sleepy, unlike many academic books.
As well as his personal touch, Foster's academic excellence is nonetheless very much there, as can be seen not only in his densely footnoted & well researched volume, but also in the very useful alphabetical index. In it, you can locate where to find out about Yeats's health, smoking habits, reallly anything...
Basicallly, if you are looking for something or someone that is very specific (thing, person, title of poem or play), you will find it simply by browsing through the index. And then once you have found it, you will be surprised to find yourself devouring the rest of book. Magnificent as well as affordable!!!
For social, political context, Foster is your man ! - By: , 28 Mar 2004 If you want to learn about Yeats' social, political context, this is the book for you. I've always loved Yeats, but, I'm ashamed to say, didn't know an awful lot about Irish history.
This book fixed that. Foster writes in crystal-clear, easy-to-read prose.The vast amount of information in this book is arranged perfectly. If you have the slightest interest in Yeats, you'll eat this book up.
However, if you are only going to read one book on Yeats. Or, if you want an introduction to Yeats this is not your book. Because Foster is concentrating on the political Yeats, he can be quite sarcastic about the spiritual/magic Yeats. This is great fun. It's entertaining, but Yeats was an intelligent man & he took this stuff seriously. It's central to his poetry. Foster doesn't take this side of Yeats seriously. He see's a lot of posturing and, although he shows a very human Yeats, this doesn't give an understanding of a lot of the poetry. A big chunk of the man is missing.
If you are looking for an introduction to Yeats,I recommend you start with Richard Ellmann's "The Man & the Masks", then go onto Foster.
Informative biography of a complicated man - By: Mark Klobas, 01 Mar 2004 William Butler Yeats offers a life of contradictions. Born in Dublin to a middle-class Protestant family, Yeats went on to become one of the premier poets of the twentieth century. As a writer & member of the Irish literary community, he also helped to forge Irish national identity through his words & his deeds. In this biography, the first of two volumes, Roy Foster offers an account of Yeats’ development into one of the leading figures of the Irish literary scene.
This is not an easy book. Foster recounts Yeats’ life in what is sometimes excruciating detail, covering every movement & literary battle the poet undertakes. Moreover, as he does so he assumes the reader’s familiarity with both the background of late nineteenth century Ireland & the members of the Irish literary community. People appear in his narrative with little introduction, creating a confusing jumble of names that limits the appreciation of their role in Yeats’ life.
Such problems aside, this is a first-rate biography. Foster does a great job examining Yeats’ life, in a text that while long is never dense. His coverage of Yeats’ occult interests is particularly good, as is that of the poet’s involvement in nationalist causes – both integral aspects of his poetry. Foster’s argument that Yeats’ involvement in the mystical was a reaction to the declining position of Protestants in Ireland, an effort to cope with the sense of dislocation by asserting psychic control, is a compelling one that helps to fit more of his poetry into the context of his times. Foster helps this process; while he asserts that his biography is about what Yeats did rather than what the poet wrote he does offer a perceptive commentary on aspects of Yeats’ work, which helps us better appreciate the connection between the man & his writings. The result is a book that is essential for understanding such a complicated literary figure & the role he played in his times.
Erudite, witty, challenging. - By: , 23 Feb 2001 A beautifully written account of Yeats' life, & more importantly, the effects of events on his writing. A must have for anyone interested in the public & private persona of who is surely one of the twentieth century's greatest writers.
