Where Auden really shines is in its portrayal of the life. ... Sometimes biographers work at a remove from their subjects. Not so Mr. Ackroyd. Skillfully collating the accounts of Auden’s intimates, he offers details about the poet’s sexuality, psyche, cratering appearance and deteriorating habits that are painful to contemplate. They make one (almost) want to turn away—or seek solace in the poetry.
Covers all the bases and is not, strictly speaking, actually dull: no life of Auden could possibly be dull. But what we get here is chronology, not electricity ... A better biography might have captured more: Humphrey Carpenter’s W. H. Auden: A biography (1981) still comes closest. Then again, in a life of finite duration, why bother with biographies? Maybe don’t read Auden. Read Auden instead.
Peter Ackroyd, author of novels, biographies, and general histories, in his interesting new biography of Auden, does not expend much time on rating Auden as a poet ... The portrait that emerges from Ackroyd’s Auden, especially of the poet’s later years, is ultimately a deprecating one. What recommends it is that it also happens to be persuasive and, finally, sadly truthful.
