The Boundless Deep

Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize

Named a Book of the Year by the Times, Daily Telegraph, Spectator, Financial Times, and Observer

“Brilliant. . . . Holmes depicts an intense, charismatic, intellectually curious young man whose poetry was infused with the revolutionary scientific discoveries of the day. . . . This shrewd, sensitive, beautifully written portrait provides a much-needed restoration of the human being beneath a barnacle-encrusted reputation. A must for poetry readers and a treat for anyone who enjoys fine literary biography.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“[Holmes] replaces the dusty usual portraits of the poet laureate . . . with a sparkling vision of him as an intelligent and imaginative man who welcomed in the new scientific age. Truly enriching.”
—Sunday Times (London)

“Holmes is probably our greatest chronicler of the Romantic poets. . . . The Boundless Deep is a dazzling and tireless work of advocacy.”
—The Times (London)

“Compelling. . . . A fascinating insight into a great British poet whose depths . . . remain boundless.”
—Daily Telegraph

“A spryly written but deeply learned biography.”
—Spectator

“There is an unusual, gentle mixture of imagination and empiricism in everything Holmes writes: a poetic sense of human psychology combined with a meticulous organized mind.”
—New Statesman

“The Boundless Deep shakes off the poet’s fusty image to reveal a young man grappling with the doubts of his age. . . . Holmes presents Tennyson as more interesting, more clever, more elusive and downright peculiar than modern readers may imagine.”
—Observer