A biography of Gerard Manley Hopkins, setting out to present the poet's life in relation to his writings - both the finished poems and the notebooks, letters and drafts which he left. The author finds in Hopkins' life a succession of turmoils rather than a settled ideological position.

This biography of Gerard Manley Hopkins, prepared with the benefit of Hopkins's private papers, sets out to present the poet's life in relation to his writings - both the finished poems and the wealth of notebooks, letters and drafts which he left. Unlike many previous biographical studies, which have sought a unified picture of the man via his belief as a Roman Catholic, this one sifts the evidence, and finds in Hopkins's life a succession of turmoils rather than a settled ideological position. Hopkins's powerful and original temperament, a strange mixture of innocence and expertise, of old prejudices and clear-sighted observations, constantly worked against his achieving happiness and success. Within the religious discipline he had chosen, his problems were sometimes crushed but never fully worked out, though much superb writing, both poetry and prose, were the result. The biography charts his literary development alongside the events of his life, his friendships with figures such as Robert Bridges, Digby Dolben, Coventry Patmore, and Canon Dixon, and the crises of his religious thought. There are discussions of the poetry, often quoted in its earlier drafts to reveal the workings of Hopkins' creative mind.