Rupert Brooke

by David Boyle Book 3 in the Geniuses series.

First published 2015

Amazon

3.3(34)

David Boyle’s short biography examines Rupert Brooke beyond the idealised image created after his death in 1915. It follows his Cambridge and Bloomsbury connections, emotional relationships, travel and poetry, then traces the patriotic sonnets that made him one of the best-known literary voices of the opening months of the First World War.

The final section follows Brooke’s service with the Royal Naval Division and his journey towards the Dardanelles, where he died of sepsis on the island of Skyros before the Gallipoli landings. Boyle explores how quickly Brooke’s death was turned into a national symbol and distinguishes the complicated individual from the patriotic myth that survived him.