Publisher's Synopsis
In a striking style, more poetic than essayistic, closer to narrative than documentation, Fleur Jaeggy highlights the biographical details of three great men of letters: Thomas De Quincey, John Keats, and Marcel Schwob. From the gloomy boarding schools to which De Quincey was confined to Keats’s propensity for both troublemaking and poetic brilliance and Schwob’s adventurous journey to the South Pacific in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson, the author weaves an intimate narrative of the most human elements of these three creators, presenting the achievements and misfortunes of men who reached the summit of literary excellence.
