John Keats

“Mr. Bate has a great story to tell, a story far greater than any predecessor has discovered, for he has made himself completely informed on everything that pertains to Keats—as completely, it would seem, as Keats himself was. All the many persons who come into the story are seen steadily and whole, with sympathy as well as with a wise impartiality. But all this is subordinate to the main theme—the events of Keats’s mental life in all their glowing intensity. That mental life was expressed in letters and poems, and Mr. Bate has written not only the best biography of Keats but the best criticism of his writings. The moment was ripe for a culminating book on Keats and the moment has found the man.”—Geoffrey Tillotson