Description
Book SynopsisSir William Jones (1746-94) was the foremost Orientalist of his generation and one of the greatest intellectual navigators of all time. He re-drew the map of European thought. ''Orientalist'' Jones was an extraordinary man and an intensely colourful figure. At the age of twenty-six, Jones was elected to Dr Johnson''s Literary Club, on terms of intimacy with the metropolitan luminaries of the day. The names of his friends in Britain and India present a roll-call of late eighteenth-century glitterati: Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Priestley, Edmund Burke, Warren Hastings, Johannes Zoffany, Edward Gibbon, Oliver Goldsmith, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Charles James Fox, William Pitt, and David Garrick. In Bengal his Sanskrit researches marked the beginning of Indo-European comparative grammar, and modern comparative-historical linguistics, of Indology, and the disciplines of comparative literature, philology, mythology, and law. He did more
Trade ReviewAll in all, this is an excellent biography of an extraordinary eighteenth-century intellectual ... the author has succeeded in giving a very lively portrait of a man with a fascinating personality, and the book offers the right balance between detailed and accurate factual information, a sensitive psychological interpretation of William Jones the man, and a clear exposition of the importance of his contribution to linguistics and Orientalism. * Pierre Dubois, Graat *
... intelligent and stimulating ... This is a splendid book - in the richness of its research and the depth of its empathy, in the subtle delineation of William Jones's character and the diligent unravelling of a multi-faceted subject. * David Arnold, Times Literary Supplement *
Michael Franklin has written the definitive biography of this most polymathic of men, moving with ease between the many facets of his remarkable mind. * James Mather, The Spectator *
[A] readable and thorough biography...of one of the greatest polymaths in history * Andrew Robinson, The Independent *
Michael Franklin has absorbed a lot of the gravitas and scholarly attention to detail of his chosen subject. * Robert Irwin, Literary Review *
well worth reading * John Brockington, Translation and Literature *
dynamic and definitive biography ... Franklin's portrait of Jones as a radical, republican mediator of hitherto disparate cultures is long overdue * Kurt A. Johnson, The Review of English Studies *
Franklin's new biography of Jones goes much further than previous biographies ... in relating his career and his intellectual ambitions to the social and political circumstances of his time. [It] brings out many new biographical and critical insights into Jones's work and career * William Crawley, Asian Affairs *
[an] admirable and engrossing biography. * The India Site *
Michael Franklin has written an engaging, sympathetic, and definitive new scholarly biography of the first great British orientalist, Sir William Jones ... an impressive achievement * Peter J. Kitson, Wordsworth Circle *
Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Claiming Kin in Calcutta: Jones discovers the Indo-European family of languages ; 2. Persian Jones, London Welshman, surveys his roots ; 3. Druid Jones on the Carmarthen Circuit: Radicalization and Recreation on the Celtic Fringe ; 4. Impressive Patrons and Impressing Mariners ; 5. Republican Jones and the Poetry of Politics: Fragments of Liberty ; 6. Knowing India: Asiatic Researches/Recreations ; 7. Europe Falls in Love with Sakuntala ; 8. Life and Death in Calcutta: A Courtroom View of the Ethics of Empire ; 9. 'Indo-Persian' Jones and Indian Pluralism ; Select Bibliography ; Index
