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Super-Infinite
- The Transformations of John Donne
- Narrated by: Jamie Parker
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
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Super-Infinite
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Summary
Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2022
** A Sunday Times bestseller **
** A Guardian, Spectator, TLS, New Statesman, Daily Mail and Telegraph Book of the Year**
'Every page sparkles.' Claire Tomalin
'A triumph.' Matt Haig
'Stylish, scholarly and gripping' Rose Tremain
John Donne lived myriad lives.
Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, John Donne was incapable of being just one thing. He was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral – and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the English language. He converted from Catholicism to Protestantism, was imprisoned for marrying a high-born girl without her father’s consent, struggled to feed a family of ten children and was often ill and in pain. He was a man who suffered from black surges of sadness, yet expressed in his verse electric joy and love.
From a standout scholar, a biography of John Donne: the poet of love, sex, and death. In Super-Infinite, Katherine Rundell embarks on a fleet-footed ‘act of evangelism’, showing us the many sides of Donne’s extraordinary life, his obsessions, his blazing words, and his tempestuous Elizabethan times – unveiling Donne as the most remarkable mind and as a lesson in living.
Critic reviews
"Crackling with gusto and sympathetic intelligence." (Andrew Motion)
What listeners say about Super-Infinite
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Adrian Bushen
- 08-12-22
Infinitely recommended
One of the great biographies. A richness of language that mirrors the poet’s. An exhilarating experience.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Robbie Stamp
- 09-02-23
A Beard Trimmed by an Ice Skate
Genuinely one of the best written, most profound and beautiful books I’ve listened to on Audible. The author’s own sense of language provides a lattice in which to explore John Donne of whom I had always been a little frightened before!
The performance is also wonderful.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Dan
- 08-06-23
So good
I’m so glad Katherine Rundell wrote this, what a gift. Will probably listen to it again.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anomalous Monist
- 06-07-23
Sweeping
Marvellous, rejuvenating, poetic & all-sweeping book. She writes so audaciously, & of course she should - he is full of marvels.
Reading also excellent. Happy day, see in that this book, which I’d earmarked to read soon, had an Audible version.
Just wonderful - captivating.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 29-08-23
Pleasantly surprised
I decided to buy this book not knowing anything about it because it looked half interesting and was recommended reading on a youtube channel i follow.
I went into this book not knowing anything about John Donne and perhaps knowing even less about poetry.
Although this type of biographical work isn't normally the kind of book I read, i had a good time listening to it and found it more absorbing than I expected. It was educational in a witty and entertaining way
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- MRS VA DARE
- 11-01-23
A dazzling portrait
Brilliant portrait of a fascinating man and a vivid immersion into life at the time.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 06-12-22
no man is an island... it tolls for there.
excellent thoroughly loved it, very human, talented, flawed, cagey, poor, bad father, great orator, amazing poet. relevant to today!!!
thanks.
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- alisdair
- 26-12-22
A rare glimpse into history
This was fascinating listing to history as it played out. It’s like everything changes but nothing does. The human nature is the common thread. To think this remarkable individual has left such a mark and the Writer and Narrater have done a great unifying piece.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- AmazonCustomer
- 23-03-24
Fascinating historical account of an amazing poet
Fascinating insight into the varied life and the times of this exceptional poet. This book is stunningly written; very listenable and not hindered by it necessarily being based on analysis of available evidence. Excellently narrated too.
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- Pete Slee
- 07-09-22
JOHN DONNE, ANNE DONNE, UNDONE!
A great insight into the life and times of a poet I studied at school. Well written, well read and very accessible.
Like any biography of an historic figure, I take some of her conclusions with a pinch of salt, but Katherine is careful to own the possible ambiguities and yet paints a colourful and detailed portrait of the man.
Would love to be transported back to hear his preaching at St. Paul's!
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