Charlotte Mew

Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) was a talented and successful poet, but one whose life was overshadowed by personal misery. Parental attitudes and a dominating nurse instilled in her feelings of guilt and alienation from a young age and her high spirits and love of reading and writing were continually disparaged. In adult life Charlotte believed that all passion was destructive and she repressed that joyful part of her personality with only occasional glimpses, as when she charmed Walter de le Mare. Two of her siblings became insane and were put into an asylum, so Charlotte and her sister determined to remain single and together they cared for their very difficult widowed mother. It was a lonely life, made harder by Charlotte's pride - which forbade her to accept help and literary patronage - and her unrequited passions for strong talented women. Eventually, in her 50s, she achieved financial security, but she was consumed by guilt after the death of her sister Anne. To the horror of her friends and admirers she committed suicide. Penelope Fitzgerald is famous mostly for her novels, but this biography, first published in 1984, is just as accomplished. Her portrait of Charlotte, her social circle - friends included Alice Munro - and her family is a vivid one, and she provides a fascinating insight into an era of great advances in art and technology. The reissue of this excellent book should ensure a renewed and much-deserved interest in Charlotte's work. (Kirkus UK)