Super-Infinite

JAMES SHAPIRO, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Rundell shares some of her subject's daring, which likely contributes to the freshness of her take on Donne ... She is especially good on Donne's efforts to express ideas in novel ways ... Rundell's own style can dazzle, though at times the wit feels a bit strained ... Rundell is keenly aware of the misogyny of a good number of these poems, and defends Donne without excusing him, pointing out that it's a mistake to conflate the poet with the poem's speaker ... Far more than previous (and male) biographers, Rundell is alert to Anne's travails ... Those who write about Donne tend to gravitate either to the libertine poet and secretly Catholic Jack Donne or to the sober Protestant preacher, Dr. Donne ... One of the great achievements of this impressive biography — which rises to the challenge of introducing Donne and his world to the next generation of readers — is that it shows how these two Donnes were always one and the same."