A Profane Wit: The Life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Synopsis

Johnson wrote this generous biography - a veritable progress of a rake's rake - with enthusiasm and engaged fascination with Rochester (1647-1680). Johnson's forte, in addition to the extensiveness of his information, is his strong narrative sweep: this is an exciting biography. It is highly recommended. Choice 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, he shocked 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 aspiring patriot. 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.