The Green and the Gold

by Christopher Peachment (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $12.83

  'It is God's curse that I carry this sex desire for a woman, for when I have one, she is no sooner had than hated.'

  In this playful historical novel, Peachment follows the life of Andrew Marvell - spy, politician, beguiling seventeenth-century poet and writer of 'To his Coy Mistress', one of the most famous love poems of all time.

  In his metaphysical poetry Marvell lyrically captures every aspect of love. Yet, ironically, the man himself was a solitary figure whose reflections and tremendous insight allowed beauty to flourish from an otherwise lonely existence.

  Peachment's Marvell allows us to witness those aspects of his existence that we could never glean from history alone, as we follow him through his childhood, his travels in Europe and Russia, his deepening sorrow over the trauma of the Civil War, and his endless battle between his suspicion of women and his yearning for them. His unlikely friendship with the Earl of Rochester, the Restoration rake and poet, turns his poetry from lyric to embittered satire, and finally confirms for him the fallen nature of man.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $8.35

  'It is God's curse that I carry this sex desire for a woman, for when I have one, she is no sooner had than hated.' In his second historical novel, Peachment introduces us to Andrew Marvell, the beguiling 17th century poet and writer of 'To his Coy Mistress', also a spy and politician. Marvell delightfully captured in his metaphysical poetry every aspect of love lost and gained. And yet, ironically, the man himself was a solitary figure whose reflections and tremendous insight allowed beauty to spill from an otherwise lonely existence. Peachment's Marvell allows us to witness those aspects of his life that we never would glean from history alone, as we follow him throughout his childhood, his travels in Europe, his firsthand experiences of the Cromwellian Civil War, and his endless battle between a deep-seated suspicion of women and a passionate yearning for them.