A Sultry Month

Name: A Sultry Month
Brand: Allen & Unwin
SKU: 9780571372294
Price: 36.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

Scenes of London Literary Life in 1846: 'Sizzles and steams . . . Beautifully written.' (The Times)

By Alethea Hayter

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3.75

( 115 ratings, 23 reviews)

Summary

A Sultry Month by Alethea Hayter delves into a particularly heated July in nineteenth-century London, weaving together biographies, memoirs, and historical events. The narrative brings to life a vivid tapestry of artistic and literary figures, capturing tensions, passions, and the societal undercurrents of the period. Through rich detail and interconnected stories, the book offers a captivating exploration of a momentous time in the cultural landscape.
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Format: Paperback / softback

$36⁹⁹

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A Sultry Month

$36⁹⁹

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy exploring the intricate social and cultural dynamics of 1840s London through the lens of a transformative summer. You'll be drawn to its vivid portrayal of the personal and intellectual lives of prominent literary and artistic figures, capturing both their passions and tensions in a singular moment in time.

A Sultry Month

Wine and dine with Victorian London's literati in a heatwave in one of the first ever group biographies, introduced by Francesca Wade (author of Square Haunting).

Wine and dine with Victorian London's literati in a heatwave in one of the first ever group biographies, introduced by Francesca Wade (author of Square Haunting).

Description

Though she loved the heat she could do nothing but lie on the sofa and drink lemonade and read Monte Cristo...

'Never bettered.' Guardian
'Wholly original.' Craig Brown
'A pathfinder.' Richard Holmes
'Extraordinary.' Penelope Lively

June 1846. As London swelters in a heatwave — sunstroke strikes, meat rots, ice is coveted — a glamorous coterie of writers and artists spend their summer wining, dining and opining.

With the ringletted 'face of an Egyptian cat goddess', Elizabeth Barrett is courted by her secret fiancé, the poet Robert Browning, who plots their elopement to Italy; Keats roams Hampstead Heath; Wordsworth visits the zoo; Dickens is intrigued by Tom Thumb; the Carlyles host parties for a visiting German novelist and suffer a marital crisis. But when the visionary painter Benjamin Robert Haydon commits suicide, they find their entwined lives spiralling around the tragedy...

One of the first-ever group biographies, Alethea Hayter's glorious A Sultry Month is a lively mosaic of archival riches inspired by the collages of the Pop Artists. A groundbreaking feat of creative non-fiction in 1965, her portrait of Victorian London's literati is just as vivid, witty and enticing today.

'Elegant Hayter more or less invented the biographical form which is a close study of a brief period in the life of an individual or a group... A rigorous scholar [with] an artist's eye.' - A. S. Byatt

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The work is praised for its innovative approach, immersing readers vividly into the historical setting and offering a profound insight into the lives and stories of the time. Reviewers commend Hayter's ability to draw rich stories from seemingly small fragments of life, highlighting her impeccable scholarship and engaging narrative style. The book is described as a beautifully written and outstanding piece, regarded as a small masterpiece.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780571372294

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 07 July 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Faber & Faber

Edition: Main

Contributors:

Introduction by Francesca Wade
Introduction by Francesca Wade

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 21.0mm

Width: 135.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 315g

Pages: 288

Collections

Alethea Hayter Biography & Memoir Musicians, Movie Stars & Creative Biographies Non-Fiction

About the Author

Alethea Hayter was born in Cairo in 1911, where her father was a legal advisor to the Egyptian government/ After his death when she was 12, the family returned to England in reduced circumstances, but Hayer won a scholarship to study History at Oxford in 1929. She then became a journalist before being recruited as a 'demi-semi-spook' by the Postal Censorship department during the war; she was then posted to Greece, Paris and Belgium with the British Council. Hayter's first book, Mrs Browning (1962), won that year's Royal Society of Literature Award. It was followed by the much-admired A Sultry Month (1965), Opium and the Romantic Imagination (1968), Horatio's Version (1972), A Voyage in Vain (1973) and The Wreck of the Abergavenny (2002). Hayter was appointed OBE in 1970 and died in 2006, aged 94.

Francesca Wade has written for the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Financial Times, Paris Review, Guardian, New Statesman, Frieze and Prospect. She has been the editor of the White Review and is a recipient of a Robert B Silvers Grant for Work in Progress and a 2020-21 Fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography. Her first book, Square Haunting, was a group biography of five trailblazing interwar women, longlisted for the Baille Gifford Prize and shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her next book is Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife.