a neglected biography of a neglected genius
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I saw one poem of Charlotte Mew's in the Guardian one Saturday. I could not place her. She seemed at once to be stark and modern yet sentimentally Victorian. I bought this book as I could not get her off my mind. This book tells the story of Charlotte, a bundle of contradictions and her unique genius. It is a tragic tale, to be sure but also an uplifting and tender one. Clearly she had many faults and foibles and struggled to cope with the world of early 20th Century London and its Literary Circles. Penelope Fitzgerald is a great story teller and a perceptive and sympathetic biographer. She is honest about the meagre sources for many parts of the story and yet she conveys a lively and truthful continuity despite the enigmatic disposition of her subject. It reads as well as any novel.
The second part of the book contains a good body of Charlotte's work and it is lovely to have it there to flick to as you read the story of how a particular poem was wrought.If the mark of a good poem is that its images stay with you then Charlotte Mew was a very good poet indeed.I have a yard full of white geraniums to witness that fact!
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