Paperback edition of the most significant biography of Keats since Aileen Ward's "The Making Of A Poet", which differs from its predecessors in that it is informed by a deep understanding of how Keats fitted into the intellectual and political life of his time. Motion also focuses on the importance of Keats's relationship with anti-establishment figures such as William Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt, and reveals significant new facts about his schooldays and his medical training. This paperback edition has been given a different jacket treatment to the hardback.

The outline of the story of John Keats's life is well known: the archetypal life of the Romantic genius, critically spurned and dying young. This biography aims to enrich the facts with an understanding of how Keats fitted into the intellectual and political life of his time.