Super-Infinite

The Transformations of John Donne

By: Katherine Rundell

Narrated by: Simon Vance

From standout scholar Katherine Rundell, Super-Infinite presents a sparkling and very modern biography of John Donne: the poet of love, sex, and death.

Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, John Donne was incapable of being just one thing.

In his myriad lives he was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, a priest, an MP—and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the English language. Along the way he converted from Catholicism to Protestantism, was imprisoned for marrying a sixteen-year old girl without her father’s consent, struggled to feed a family of ten children, and was often ill and in pain. He was a man who suffered from black surges of misery, yet expressed in his verse many breathtaking impressions of electric joy and love.

©2022 Katherine Rundell (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Fantastic

Disclaimer: I am a long-time John Donne fangirl.
Rundell examines Donne through the lenses of the various facets of his life and personality, bringing him vividly to life. Her prose is wonderful, and the book is engaging and engrossing. She is an unabashed lover of Donne, admitting that this is as much an "act of evangelism" as a biography, and her enthusiasm is contagious. Given my history, I was bound to love this book on an emotional level, but I feel that it is worthy of praise on the intellectual level as well.

Simon Vance was perfect, as usual.

Sublime

Story has an electric flow. Simon Vance was a nice fit for the material. Great stuff.

Loved. This. Book.

well presented, entertaining, thought provoking, informative, educational. I walked away from this book, excited to start reading his masterworks and even more intrigued then when I started.

Wow, gosh, phew!

One of the most amazing literary biographies I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. I’m blown away. Incredible…

Rundell’s writing is terrific

As a nearly lifelong appreciator of Donne’s work, I wanted to understand more of his life. I believe he is in a class of his own and defies easy labels and categories. Rundell captures why.
Still, I was not prepared for the wit, intelligence and wonderful style of the author’s writing. I admit I somewhat dreaded getting an approach to Donne’s life that was stodgy or academic, and thus completely at odds with how his work itself is. Her writing is sharp, incisive and sometimes irreverent, as befits her subject. Thank you!