SUPER-INFINITE The Transformation of John Donne

Portraying the life of the seventeenth-century poet John Donne, narrator Simon Vance is, as always, eloquent, precise, and finely attuned. He delivers some of the finest lines in British poetry with ease and assurance. Donne’s poetic genius emerged out of long struggle and deprivation, shadowed by a love-match elopement that ruined his prospects but inspired much of his greatest verse. The emotional center of this accessible and insightful narrative is the death of Anne Donne at 33, after bearing her 12th child, a scene that Vance renders with powerful feeling and restraint. This fine production of one of this year’s best literary biographies will lead listeners inevitably to the riches of Donne’s poetry, memorably recorded by actor Richard Burton, among others. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2022 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2022]