Reprobates: The Cavaliers of the English Civil War

Reprobates: The Cavaliers of the English Civil War

by JohnStubbs (Author)

Synopsis

This title is shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize 2011. From disastrous foreign forays to syphilitic poets, from political intriguing to ambitious young playwrights keen to curry favour with the king, John Stubbs brings alive the vibrant cast of characters that were at the centre of the English Civil War. Stubbs shows the reader just how the country was brought to one of the most destructive moments in its history.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 560
Edition: First edition
Publisher: Viking
Published: 24 Feb 2011

ISBN 10: 0670917532
ISBN 13: 9780670917532
Prizes: Shortlisted for BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011.

Media Reviews
Swaggeringly splendid...Stubbs is a brilliant expositor of poetry...one cannot resist being carried along the sheer boldness of the charge and the brilliance and elan of its execution -- John Adamson * Sunday Telegraph *
Terrific . . . This is good roustabout stuff but there is subtlety here too. Stubbs show us, tactfully, that everything we thought we knew about the difference between cavaliers and roundheads is probably wrong -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *
An entertaining and ambitious work that intelligently binds together the art and the politics of mid-17th-century England. Its cast of characters could hardly be bettered -- Charles Spencer * Financial Times *
A wonderful survey of the period...extraordinary snapshots of an era that makes our own seem mean, lazy and shamefully inarticulate -- Ned Denny * Evening Standard *
The subtle but powerful light that Stubbs casts on [cavalier life in Stuart England] illuminates also the Puritanism of roundhead England. Stubbs writes that 'literary talent and psychological realism' of the cavalier poets makes them 'precious witnesses of an age'. They are among the qualities that make him one too -- Robert Steward * Spectator *
Fascinating * Daily Express *
Excellent...affectionate but forensic...with considerable skill and insight, Stubbs brings to life an age, a literary movement and, for all their many faults, a group of individuals whose commitment to the king's cause helped to shape the history of England -- Adrian Tinniswood * Literary Review *
Intriguing and immaculately researched * Time Out *
A thoughtful depiction of opposed ideas and mad mutual destruction -- Iain Finlayson * The Times *
Stubbs's fresh and resourceful prose keeps the reader engaged, while he finds countless ingenious ways to draw the literary and political elements together -- Nicola Shulman * Telegraph *
Explores the gilded artistic world of Charles I's court with almost effortless brilliance...marvelously incisive, learned and moving. There is plenty of substance in Stubbs book - and plenty of wit, too -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *
Author Bio
John Stubbs was born in 1977 and studied English at Oxford and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge where he completed a doctorate in 2005. Donne: The Reformed Soul was published in 2006 and won the Glen Dimplex Irish Writers' Centre New Writer of the Year and a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for non-fiction. It was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.