A World Of His Own: The Double Life Of George Borrow
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Few figures in Victorian literature are as maddeningly elusive as George Borrow — traveller, linguist, adventurer, and writer — a man who constructed his own mythology with such conviction that separating fact from fiction became the work of generations. A World of His Own: The Double Life of George Borrow chronicles the remarkable and contradictory life of this singular 19th-century writer, whose works such as Lavengro and The Romany Rye blurred the boundaries between autobiography and invention, leaving readers and scholars perpetually uncertain of where the man ended and the myth began. David Williams brings scholarly precision and narrative authority to bear on this biographical puzzle, methodically unravelling the web of half-truths, exaggerations, and outright fabrications that Borrow wove around himself throughout his lifetime. Williams presents a portrait of a deeply complex personality — a man driven by restless energy, a passion for Romani culture and language, and an almost pathological need to reinvent his own history. The book illuminates the broader Victorian tensions between authenticity and self-fashioning, situating Borrow within the literary and cultural currents of his age with admirable depth. Published by Oxford University Press in 1982, this biography remains a foundational text for anyone seeking to understand one of the 19th century's most perplexing literary personalities — and raises the tantalising question of whether Borrow himself ever truly knew where the performance stopped.
Author: David Williams
Format: Hardback
Published: 1982, Oxford University Press
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Few figures in Victorian literature are as maddeningly elusive as George Borrow — traveller, linguist, adventurer, and writer — a man who constructed his own mythology with such conviction that separating fact from fiction became the work of generations. A World of His Own: The Double Life of George Borrow chronicles the remarkable and contradictory life of this singular 19th-century writer, whose works such as Lavengro and The Romany Rye blurred the boundaries between autobiography and invention, leaving readers and scholars perpetually uncertain of where the man ended and the myth began. David Williams brings scholarly precision and narrative authority to bear on this biographical puzzle, methodically unravelling the web of half-truths, exaggerations, and outright fabrications that Borrow wove around himself throughout his lifetime. Williams presents a portrait of a deeply complex personality — a man driven by restless energy, a passion for Romani culture and language, and an almost pathological need to reinvent his own history. The book illuminates the broader Victorian tensions between authenticity and self-fashioning, situating Borrow within the literary and cultural currents of his age with admirable depth. Published by Oxford University Press in 1982, this biography remains a foundational text for anyone seeking to understand one of the 19th century's most perplexing literary personalities — and raises the tantalising question of whether Borrow himself ever truly knew where the performance stopped.