The Neo-pagans

Library Journal

His sonnet ``The Soldier'' and early death in World War I made British poet Rupert Brooke a key figure in the nation's myth of patriotism and youthful valor. Biographer Delaney places him among the Neo-pagans, a small circle of writers, artists, and intellectuals who flourished from 1908 to 1912. The group honored youth, comradeship, and the simple life and aimed to set aside the constraints of Victorianism. Delany shows how the internal dynamics of the group, not shock of war, led to its disintegration. Brooke emerges as a complex figure whose motives and actions differ sharply from those attached to him by popular myth. For academic subject collections. Michael Hennessy, John Carroll Univ., Cleveland, Ohio