Emily Dickinson

by Cynthia Griffin Wolff

Book Overview

Cynthia Griffin Wolff's brilliant literary biography of Emily Dickinson is the first to unravel the intricate relationship between her life and her poetry. It is a vivid portrait of the poet and her times as well as a fascinating interpretive study of the poems that will enable every reader to approach them with new understanding and delight.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 020116809X
• ISBN13: 9780201168099
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 2.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Superb

This is the first Emily Dickinson biography I've read so I cannot compare it to others. [At least one reviewer has said this should not be the first biography one reads of Emily; now that I've read it, I can't imagine reading a "beginner's" biography of Emily. The psychological insight this author brings to the table cannot be overstated. Several pages of conversation about non-verbal conversation in the infant-toddler stage is fascinating.] This biography will take a couple of readings. The author has fashioned a narrative of Emily's life, her poetry, the waning of the New England Puritanism, and the history of Amherst all in one exceptionally well-researched biography. The first reading provided a tremendous overview of Emily's life and her lifelong struggle with God, but the analysis of her poetry was often way beyond what I could understand, and thus will require several more readings. Anyone who says they feel they "know" Emily Dickinson is suspect; she remains as much an enigma as ever. Having said that, I feel I have a much better perspective of Emily and am eager to tackle her poetry. The author included a superb 40-page index, an equally superb 52 pages of notes, and a 21-page bibliography. I am very impressed.

Good Stuff

The greatest strength of this biography is found in its interpretations of ED's poems. Wolff is a careful and insightful reader, capable of teasing out many layers of meaning in even the most elliptical pieces. Her analyses sometimes left me breathless; there's a special pleasure in discovering new meanings in familiar poems.As noted by another reviewer, Wolff does approach this biography with a kind of agenda. She is most interested in demonstrating how Dickinson rebelled (both in work and life) against the Trinitarian Christianity of her upbringing. Wolff really excels here, and her insight is delicious. Wolff also imbues her readings with a feminist tilt; she never descends into theoretical jargon, but her readings are often skewed by her concern with gender. I wasn't bothered by this, since her interpretations still proved fruitful and provocative. Wolff is weakest in describing ED's relationship with her mother; the psychological bent she brings to this rings a bit hollow for me, and she rides her insight about the infant poet's emotional deprivation through the entire work. Her speculation, in my opinion, isn't helpful or needed.As a life story, this volume isn't quite so complete as it might've been. It's more a work of criticism than biographical scholarship (although Wolff brings much learning to bear in her critiques on ED's work). If you're interested in the specifics of Dickinson's life, I'd recommend starting with Sewall's monumental biography.It's also worth noting that some critics have disagreed with Wolff's commentary on Dickinson's life, particular the poet's childhood (Wolff's take on it is rather bleak, a conclusion not necessarily supported by the historical records). I'm not a Dickinson scholar, so I can't answer to these arguments. I do love ED's poetry deeply, however, and found this book a compassionate and fascinating read.

Penetrating View of ED's Thought-World and Private Language

Having read (more or less) every biography of Dickinson -- perhaps the greatest poet in English and one of the great literary sensibilities on record -- Cynthia Wolff's is the one which stands out as placing her in the appropriate context. Other biographies (for example, Sewell's) may contain a greater degree of sheer information, but none is so intelligently selective as this. Wolff's scholarship is something one can only marvel at. She attempts to, and succeeds brilliantly at, surrounding Dickinson by her literary and cultural milieu, the revivalist fervor sweeping New England at the time, her familial dynamics, the role of someone of her gender and class at that place and time. Rather than see just the face of Dickinson, a full portrait of her world emerges.Wolff's readings are unconventional because, quite frankly, she's one of the few who's gone to the trouble of realizing that Dickinson had an ICONOGRAPHY, that certain terms appear with regularity of time and meaning. "Ample", "wrestle", "elect", "father", "bird", "bee" -- one can go on and on, if one really looks -- all derive meaning *cumulatively* from Dickinson's poetic work and voluminous, lapidarian correspondence. Many terms are consistently ironic, or mean their opposites; 'reading' the poems without realizing this will produce the kinds of interpretations produced with disappointing regularity by less careful critics. Wolff has drunk it all in, and synthesized it, in a monumental work of decipherment.This probably shouldn't be the only Dickinson biography one reads. But it should be at the top of any such list.