Nigel Smith is professor of English and codirector of the Center for the Study of Books and Media at Princeton University.
"Superlative. . . . The fullest portrait we have to date."—David
Yezzi, The Wall Street Journal
*The Wall Street Journal*
"Nigel Smith. . . has certainly mastered everything that can be
learned about this elusive, shadowy and very private man."—Michael
Dirda, The Washington Post
*The Washington Post*
"Smith asks the right questions about Marvell's life and time, and
he works assiduously in helping to lay 'a new foundation of the
documentary knowledge.' . . . [A] worthy biography."—Megan Buskey,
The New York Times Book Review
*The New York Times Book Review*
"He offers the fullest available account of Marvell's political
activities, fully contextualized. . . . [An] indispensible
guide."—Paul Dean, The New Criterion
*The New Criterion*
"Nigel Smith attends skillfully to the poetry, but he also provides
extensive information about the period as well as the complicated
development of Marvell's political and religious views. . . .
[Smith's] is probably the most complete biography of Marvell we are
likely to see."—Jerome Donnelly, America
*America*
"Smith delivers fresh insights into Marvell’s experiences and
character…. a fascinating psychological portrait of Marvell."—Helen
Hackett, Times Literary Supplement
*Times Literary Supplement*
"From reclusive poet to undercover pamphleteer, Andrew Marvell has
always been a mystery man. But nobody knows him better than Nigel
Smith, who now follows his definitive edition of the poetry with an
up-to-date and state-of-the-art biography."—Annabel Patterson, Yale
University
*Annabel Patterson*
"The remarkable depth of Nigel Smith's research makes new sense of
a celebratedly elusive writer."—David Norbrook, author of Poetry
and Politics in the English Renaissance
*David Norbrook*
‘Nigel Smith's definitive biography of Marvell is a gripping read,
opening up a world of surprisingly intense interactions between
poetry and politics in England's most turbulent modern century.
Smith brilliantly illuminates the two sides of Marvell's
poetical character--the engaged, parliamentary brawler and
controversialist, and the weirdly detached observer of the
world--but he also shows how the mysteriousness of Marvell's
character resides at last in the very independence and privacy for
which Marvell so publicly fought."—Gordon Teskey, Harvard
University
*Gordon Teskey*
"Rich in detail and impeccably lucid, this remarkable study allows
us to understand the subtle poet and elusive politician as we never
have before. If Marvell was a mirror to the world, as one of the
book's sources says, Nigel Smith is the perfect guide to the mirror
and its world, master of the difficult art of looking-glass
history."—Michael Wood, Princeton University
*Michael Wood*
'The chameleon that emerges from this badly needed, deeply
researched study is not just the subtle lyricist familiar from the
anthologies but a vigorous verse satirist and an ambitious prose
controversialist, whose views still resonate today. Historical
sleuthing and literary analysis combine brilliantly in this
landmark account - the fullest, most wide-angle picture of Marvell
ever produced." —John Kerrigan, Professor of English 2000,
University of Cambridge
*John Kerrigan*
"Meticulously researched. . . this noteworthy study provides a
suitable balance of historical context and literary
criticism."—Library Journal
*Library Journal*
"Smith makes an excellent case for the enduring power of Marvell's
occasional poems and satires."—Adam Kirsch, Barnes and Noble
Review
*Barnes and Noble Review*
"[A] worthy biography."—Megan Buskey, The New York Times Book
Review
*The New York Times Book Review*
"[An] exhaustive, shrewd, wary new biography...Thepoet as craft
chameleon in Smith's smart and resonant readings is also the poet
as skulking, threatened double agent."—Robert Polito, Bookforum
*Bookforum*
"[An] exhaustive, shrewd, wary new biography."—Robert Polito,
Bookforum
*Bookforum*
"Engaging, intensely researched…. Smith is very good on the
historical and political contexts surrounding Marvell…. Smith’s
book is a welcome contribution to Marvell studies."—Nick Laird,
Daily Telegraph
*Daily Telegraph*
"[An] illuminating study."—Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman
*The Scotsman*
"The result of Smith’s scholarly close readings is a refreshed and
refined sense of Marvell’s poetry, and his biography should be a
standard point of reference for future Marvellians."—John Stubbs,
Literary Review
*Literary Review*
“Nigel Smith…has now filled [a] void with this authoritative
Life.”—Barton Swaim, The Weekly Standard
*The Weekly Standard *
"It is an achievment of astonishing depth and equally impressive
scope, covering a fascinating, complex period of English history.
The book is must reading for early modern scholars."—M. Cole,
CHOICE
*CHOICE*
"Meticulously researched and scholarly in tone, this noteworthy
study provides a suitable balance of historical context and
literary criticism. Strongly recommended for students and general
readers of 17th-century English literature and history."—Brian
Odom, Library Journal
*Library Journal*
“Insightful, provocative.”—Books and Culture
*Books and Culture*
“Smith’s comprehensive study of Marvell’s many guises will
influence critical thinking for years to come.”—A.D Cousins, Review
of English Studies Vol.62 No.256
*Review of English Studies Vol.62 No.256*
"Nigel Smith's massive effort . . . obviates the need for any
further such survey of Marvell's life and art . . . [Smith's] grasp
of seventeenth-century English history, politics, religion,
society, is beyond impressive, and he is also a sensitive reader of
poetry."—William H. Pritchard, The Hudson Review
*The Hudson Review*
“Nigel Smith… has now filled [a] void with this authoritative
Life.”—Barton Swaim, The Weekly Standard
*The Weekly Standard*
"Smith's meticulous archival research . . . allows a portrait of
the young Marvell to form from relatively few life records. . . .
Smith is able to identify relationships between [the political
ideas of the prose and the depictions of love and sexuality in the
lyric poems] in provocative ways."—Curtis Whitaker, Huntington
Library Quarterly
*Huntington Library Quarterly*
Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011 in the
English and American category.
*Choice*
“This context of danger, where revelations of identity can mean a
beheading, permeates the poet’s literary as well as his political
work, as this scholarly biography shows.”—Sunday Herald
(Glasgow)
*Sunday Herald (Glasgow)*
Shortlisted for the 2011 HW Fisher Best First Biography Prize
*Biographers' Club*
"A highly laudatory biography of the republican poet who praised
regicides, hated Catholics and exposed in memorable verse
corruption in those places he chose to investigate."—Contemporary
Review
*Contemporary Review*
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