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

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 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.

Author: James W. James W. Johnson
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
Published: 11/01/2004
Pages: 478
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.72lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.48w x 1.22d
ISBN13: 9781580461702
ISBN10: 1580461700
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Literary Figures
- Biography & Autobiography | Historical
- Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh