... makes the reader long for the prompt publication of the final volume of what is already an impressive biographical achievement.
Ruud van den Beuken (Radboud University Nijmegen) The Journal
Its almost a day-to-day account of the life of this prolific and erudite writer and scholar. As such, it illuminates and validates the poetry.
David Crook, Bookwitty ... Read more
Moody writes well and answerably, and has mastered the difficulties of his subject; for all its length his book is never dull or disproportioned.
David Bromwich, The Times Literary Supplement
The story will have been in expert hands throughout, and it will surely end up being better told than any of the many available versions previously on offer... The great virtue of what Moody is, has been, and obviously will be doing is to make 'the whole and all' as coherent as any biographer-critic could reasonably be expected to do.
Review of English Studies, John Pilling
A fascinating tour around the landscapes of Pound's mind, and it is a refreshing antidote to the simplistic view of Pound that sometimes prevails.
Shiny New Books, Rob Spence
A seriously important contribution to making sense of the complexity of Pound ... [a] biography which guides us brilliantly.
Luca Gallesi, Il Giornale
Splendid
Denis Donoghue, Irish Times
The second volume of a magnificent biography that will surely take its place among the most important studies of any Modernist writer.
David Mason, Wall Street Journal
Another impressive installment in what will surely stand as the definitive biography of a flawed titan.
Booklist
The eagerly awaited second instalment of this life of Pound is wonderfully panoramic, covering his time in France and Italy alongside his growing interests in money and musicality. Moody's close reading of The Cantos is similarly assured and impressive.
Matthew Feldman, Times Higher Education
Moody - who quotes Leon Edels remark that a biographer is "a novelist, on oath" - reports all this and more with wry, scholarly impartiality. He becomes expertly serious as comedy shades into tragedy in the Thirties, and Pound's admiration for the fascism of Mussolini grows unfunnily naive... Masterly.
Jeremy Noel-Tod, Daily Telegraph
Moody's biography is the best kind of slow read, its authority and grip increasing as the details accumulate. It is also an exceptional feat of criticism, often shedding light on unexpected facets of Pounds poetry. When the final volume is with us, it will stand as the definitive account of perhaps the most troublous and dramatic life in 20th-century literature.
Matthew Sperling, Literary Review
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