Andrew Marvell: The Chameleon

✍ Scribed by Nigel Smith

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 414
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The seventeenth-century poet Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) is one of the most intriguing figures in English literature. A noted civil servant under Cromwell’s Protectorate, he has been variously identified as a patriot, spy, conspirator, concealed homosexual, father to the liberal tradition, and incendiary satirical pamphleteer and freethinker. But while Marvell’s poetry and prose has attracted a wide modern following, his prose is known only to specialists, and much of his personal life remains shrouded in mystery.

Nigel Smith’s pivotal biography provides an unparalleled look into Marvell’s life, from his early employment as a tutor and gentleman’s companion to his suspicious death, reputedly a politically fueled poisoning. Drawing on exhaustive archival research, the voluminous corpus of Marvell’s previously little known writing, and recent scholarship across several disciplines, Smith’s portrait becomes the definitive account of this elusive life.

✦ Table of Contents

CONTENTS
MAPS
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter 1. Introduction: The Problem of Andrew Marvell
Chapter 2. Roots
Chapter 3. A Decade of Crises
Chapter 4. Poetry and Revolution
Chapter 5. The Tutor
Chapter 6. Civil Service
Chapter 7. Cavalier Revenge
Chapter 8. The Painter and the Poet Dare
Chapter 9. Cabal Days
Chapter 10. Indulgence and Rehearsal
Chapter 11. Brute Divines
Chapter 12. Arbitrary Power
Chapter 13. Afterlife and Revelation
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Index