Madder Music, Stronger Wine: The Life of Ernest Dowson, Poet and Decadent

The short, miserable career of the poet Ernest Dowson--fastidious in verse but untidy in life--is pathetic but also moving, a revealing lens through which one may view literary London of the fin-de-siecle. Like the age, Dowson was full of contradictions: an idolater of child-women and a frequenter of whores, a passionate convert to Catholicism and a degenerate consumer of absinthe, a dedicated craftsman of gem-like lyrics and a hack translator of soft-core pornography. Most important of all is t [...]

Excellent work on this sadly neglected poet and novelist. Dowson, the author of such memorable lines as "gone with the wind" and "days of wine and roses" was truly, perhaps along with Van Gogh, the tragic archetype of the misunderstood, struggling artist. Sit back, pour a glass of absinthe, and tip one back for the man. 4 stars.

An outstanding, clear-eyed and sympathetic biography of an exquisite yet lesser known fin-de-siecle poet. It would be easy to dismiss Ernest Dowson as a self-indulgent miserabilist who simply squandered his narrow genius and died prematurely. However Jad Adams convincingly paints Dowson as a man of such cruelly acute sensibilities that he was hardly meant for this world; indeed was pre-ordained not to survive it for very long. As the novelist Edgar Jepson perfectly put it: "[Ernest] had the air [...]

Ernest Dowson, a friend of Oscar Wilde and an important, although often overlooked poet from the Victorian Decadent era.My interest in Dowson began after seeing fresh flowers on his grave, a 110 year old grave where all around his had been forgotten. So I looked him up on and now, well I'm hooked. His poetry is arguably some of the most important lyrics of his time, and was considered by some a 'genius' including Oscar Wilde.He died penniless, sleeping on a friends sofa in pain physically, and [...]

Ernest Dowson, a friend of Oscar Wilde and an important, although often overlooked poet from the Victorian Decadent era.My interest in Dowson began after seeing fresh flowers on his grave, a 110 year old grave where all around his had been forgotten. So I looked him up on and now, well I'm hooked. His poetry is arguably some of the most important lyrics of his time, and was considered by some a 'genius' including Oscar Wilde.He died penniless, sleeping on a friends sofa in pain physically, and [...]

Ernest Dowson was, at his best, a superb lyric poet. Ironically enough, he cared more for his prose than poetry. Dowson also makes for a haunting study of poetry and self-destruction. Adams’ book is very insightful - puts Dowson’s troubled mind and soul under a microscope. This book would likely be very interesting for anyone who enjoys reading about the “decadent period.”

A wonderfully written biography,but it did seem to drag in the end.