The Passions of John Addington Symonds

Reviews / Votes

Monumental. * Nikhil Krishnan, The New Yorker * At once scholarly and poetic, novelistically gripping and lyrical, Shane Butler's breathtaking investigation of Victorian intellectual John Addington Symonds reveals the complex interminglings between Symonds's personal experience and his writings and establishes him as a queer theorist before queer theory, an indispensable figure for understanding the making and unmaking of modern sexualities. A meta- or anti-biography, a magnificent tribute to the practice of close reading, a work of unconventional cultural history, and a timely theoretical intervention, this book powerfully and innovatively contributes to the debate on Victorian and post-Victorian sexualities...Unclassifiably original, blistering, visionary, Shane Butler is one of the most fearless and inspiring literary and critical theorists of our time. * Mario Telo, Professor of Rhetoric, Classics, and Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley * We find in The Passions of John Addington Symonds a good deal of engaging commentary and original interpretation...Butler's own passion for Symonds makes this text foundational ground for reading. It points us to essential literary examples from ancient times, through the Renaissance, and on to the Victorians. * G&LR Review * We find in The Passions of John Addington Symonds a good deal of engaging commentary and original interpretation. * Gay & Lesbian Review *