The Keats Brothers: The Life of John and George

This workmanlike dual portrait of poet John Keats and the younger adventurer, George, by Stanford English professor Gigante, takes a step beyond standard biographies in several ways. Most importantly, it explores the central role George played in recognizing and emotionally supporting John’s genius. Leaving behind the gentlemanliness of England, shaped by the unique nature of the New World just before 1820—the wilderness, the absence of gentility in cities such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Louisville—George is seen as a questing visionary who took his own “imaginative leap” across the Atlantic (rather than, as elsewhere, a profit-at-all-cost capitalist). Indeed, the concentration is on George and his wife, Georgiana, a caustic and witty survivor if ever there was one. John, a tragic genius, is portrayed by Gigante as internalizing failure (and his brother’s absence) as John’s early work is dismissed or, worse, disregarded. John’s love for Fanny Brawne is doomed to a “posthumous life.” The contrasting lives of George, surviving a snowy winter in Louisville, and John, dying in Rome, is poignant. That John’s critical reputation in many ways grew more readily in the U.S. adds a level of irony to the lives of these “star-crossed brother[s].” 65 illus. (Oct.)