A Profane Wit: The Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781580463362)

A biography of the poet and libertine the Earl of Rochester.

Of the glittering, licentious court around King Charles II, John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, was the most notorious. Simultaneously admired and vilified, he personified the rake-hell. Libertine, profane, promiscuous, heshocked his pious contemporaries with his doubts about religion and his blunt verses that dealt with sex or vicious satiric assaults on the high and mighty of the court. This account of Rochester and his times provides the facts behind his legendary reputation as a rake and his deathbed repentance. However, it also demonstrates that he was a loving if unfaithful husband, a devoted father, a loyal friend, a serious scholar, a social critic, and an aspiringpatriot.

An Emeritus professor of English at the University of Rochester, James William Johnson is the author or editor of nine books and many articles treating British and American Literature.

Author: James W. James W. Johnson
ISBN-10: 1580463363
ISBN-13: 9781580463362
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
Language: English
Published: 11/30/2009
Pages: 478
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.41lbs
Size: 8.98h x 6.02w x 1.02d