Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense

Great seller and wonderful book.

Love this book and learned more about Edward Lear as a charming, irascible, often lonely but very socially engaging, eccentric genius. Never knew he was such a wonderful artist and what a brilliant but tormented man. Jenny Uglow has done her research well although the only problem I had was with the enormous number of individuals she mentions as both patrons/friends and casual relationships who frequented his life as he traveled and lived extensively over the world. Some, if not many, of them could have been omitted without loss of interest and would make the reading a tad easier going. That said, Jenny Uglow has generated a great favor to many readers who aren't familiar with his enormous creativity and sense of fun. A must read for those who are only familiar with "The Owl and the Pussy Cat."

...not to minimize the content! Lovely color artwork by Lear, and design by Na Kim.

Excellent book, seller included a nice note. pro-active and great customer service.

Engaging, interesting. Includes numerous excerpts from Lear's letters so you feel like he is the writer.

Looking forward to enjoying this book

Jenny Uglow is a British national treasure (and this from a Yank). It is hard to know where to begin the praise for this biography that was so much more than that. I read Ms Uglow's "The Lunar Men" (also brilliant) and someone suggested this book and in particular the Kindle version. It was the perfect medium for a work with poems, cartoons, photos and paintings. Like many, I knew Lear through his nonsense poems, not realizing he was a musician, poet, travel writer and artist.The author magically weaves the reader both into the mind of Edward Lear and the world of the 19th century - the first decade in which the populace traveled en masse. Lear was creative, enigmatic, brilliant and an original thinker. The chronology of his travels, meals, friends, influences, thoughts and beliefs was near-perfect. The illustrations added tremendously to the overall quality.Lear was truly a man in the know - poets, politicians, royalty, scientists, artists and of course the everyday man and woman. He was unusually liberal for the time in terms of religion (an agnostic before the term was invented) and yet counted many of the clergy as friends. His lifelong yearning for men while pondering marriage was yet another aspect that greatly affected his work and it was handled with delicacy. This is the one biography you should read this year.

What a joy it is to read this outstanding biography. The physical book is handsome. The illustrations are superb and the writing could not be more direct or more eloquent. I have read Lear's poetry and nonsense literature for years but I really knew almost nothing about his art nor the details of his biography. Lear was a fascinating, complex, talented and privately troubled human being but the warmth of his personality and his keen understanding of children and his insights into the lives of animals were remarkable. For the sickness of these mean-spirited times, Ms. Iglow's biography is the perfect antidote.

Added book to my library

Muito informativo, bem escrito, edição primorosa, ricamente ilustrada e documentada, integra biografia, obra artística e pensamento de Edward Lear. Para quem se interessa pelo assunto, vale a pena ter.

Gift was enjoyed and a welcome addition to his Lear collection

This is one of the most gorgeous books I own, or have ever seen and read.Jenny Uglow is something of {sorry!} a national treasure, her biographies of Hogarth, Bewick, the Lunar Men, et al, not to mention her book about the Napoleonic era in Britain, having established her as one of our least predictable and most treasurable writers of non-fiction books that read like page-turning novels.This is easily the most expansive and extensive book yet written about that solitary, lonely, shy, eccentric purveyor of nonsense, as well as miraculously lovely paintings of wildlife and landscapes, on his many travels to escape ~ to escape himself and 'normality', but also to see the odd world he was so fascinated by. He may have been reclusive and modest, but he travelled far, and no man so seemingly lacking in the social graces could have affected so many so quickly and so beguilingly.Lear is a mostly lovable character, and Uglow does this Victorian gentle soul and obsessive limerick-writer full justice. It's very difficult to imagine a finer, or more beautiful, book about Edward Lear. The illustrations are many and glorious, if sometimes a little too small perhaps. The book is beautifully presented, and a joy to simply look at, let alone to handle.Uglow is quite obviously besotted by her subject, and pays Lear the compliment of treating his many limericks and other poems as the strange, often melancholy, sometimes violent creations they are. She's superb at 'deconstructing' even the most seemingly innocent limerick, analysing the language and, where appropriate, relating it to Lear's life and circumstances. If this makes her book sound dry or pretentious, I can assure you it isn't. It's a sheer pleasure to read, just as Lear is a pleasure to meet again in these pages. Never has his life and considerable work been so comprehensively written about in one volume, and for that I am so grateful to Ms Uglow. As for the many illustrations ~ utterly wonderful. It even has ~ oh, rare joy! ~ its own built-in olive green bookmark.How pleasant to know Mr Lear . . .You'll certainly feel you do after reading this enchanting book.

Always interested in Edward Lear ,I was delighted to order this book but disappointed when I received it. It came promptly and in excellent condition. I was disappointed in the content.it was heavy going quite alien tobKear snd to me.