Buy new:
$27.00
FREE delivery Sunday, May 12 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$27.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Sunday, May 12 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 8. Order within 20 hrs 1 min
Only 3 left in stock - order soon.
$$27.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$27.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$21.98
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 8. Order within 20 hrs 1 min
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$27.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$27.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Jenny Uglow
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

William Hogarth: A Life and a World Paperback – April 8, 2002

by Jenny Uglow (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 70 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$27.00","priceAmount":27.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"27","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"KuqsX37rOX88tIvOtjycnBVdKWQcF98kt9xOMrF9nK0pal2ESU%2BZTlgUWyRjdMFPVQ9eUg%2BWxqTkZApCK%2FJDoYzt6RSG6QiWWfwOuPRkCzS2xG0qm2Cs7fCbKto8TpjDON%2Fpq7LUPCA%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$21.98","priceAmount":21.98,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"21","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"98","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"KuqsX37rOX88tIvOtjycnBVdKWQcF98kzBQ0uZ54k7Y%2BWMxwLkbK73oq4aV94nK9hLNMsKkAnmb8BpDIQJ8Fz5PDI1%2BHv7mUBWnYNJuhwhe6ZuGK%2FDLIJqvN38CeU3dKza8TSjV%2Bs6Uli5DutbdEUVtiOJrCxFFZvJWKuiQlApmfT6LLdPVXU3Bf7iiOU379","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Hogarth's prints hang in our pubs and leap out from our history-books. He painted the great and good but also the common people. His art is comically exuberant, 'carried away by a passion for the ridiculous', as Hazlitt said.

In this rich, immensely pleasurable biography Jenny Uglow, acclaimed author of Elizabeth Gaskell, uncovers the man, but also the worlds he sprang from and created. After striving years as an engraver and painter, Hogarth leapt into lasting fame with his progresses of the Harlot and the Rake, the fashionable Marriage à la Mode, and the violent scenes of Gin Lane and the Stages of Cruelty. An artist of flamboyant, overflowing imagination, he was a satirist with an unerring eye; a painter of vibrant colour and tenderness; an ambitious professional who broke all the art-world taboos. Never content, he wanted to excel at everything - from engraving to history painting - and a note of risk runs through his life.

In Hogarth: A Life and a World, art history comes to life in the voices of Hogarth's own age. The result is an unforgettable portrait of a great artist and a proud, stubborn, comic, vulnerable man.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    816 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Faber & Faber
  4. Publication date
    April 8, 2002
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 2.32 x 9.2 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0571193765
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0571193769
  8. See all details
Next page
Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jenny Uglow grew up in Cumbria and now works in publishing. Her books include prize-winning biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and William Hogarth. The Lunar Men, published in 2002, was described by Richard Holmes as 'an extraordinarily gripping account', while Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick, won the National Arts Writers Award for 2007 and A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration was shortlisted for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize. Her most recent book In These Times, a comprehensive history of the home front during the Napoleonic Wars, was described as 'a remarkable book written by an award-winning historian at the peak of her powers'. She lives in Canterbury.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber; Revised ed. edition (April 8, 2002)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 816 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0571193765
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0571193769
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 2.32 x 9.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 70 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Jenny Uglow

Jenny Uglow

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
70 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Rosemarie
5.0 out of 5 stars Jenny Uglow is just brilliant
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2017
Verified Purchase
One of the world's great bios--up there with Bate's takes on Johnson and Keats and Ellman's Joyce and Wilde. Just get it, revel in it, come to understand the absolute brilliance of Hogarth, the rollicking times, the politics (made palpable), the streets of London and the riotous riot that was The Big Smoke before it was The Big Smoke. Monumental, enjoyable as hell, only thing is it's a bit hard to hold up in bed. Can't put it down!!!! Love it.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
marf
5.0 out of 5 stars Bad print reproduction
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2021
Verified Purchase
I gave this five stars because I haven't read it yet, but a cursory glance at the illustrations they appear small and low resolution. I was most excited for larger reprints, so a bit disappointed.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Daniel H. Bigelow
4.0 out of 5 stars Monumental
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2003
William Hogarth, though one of the finest artists of his time, was still very much a man of his time. His thoughts, his art, and his life do not transcend history -- to understand him and his work, it is necessary to put them in the context of the day. So Jenny Uglow paints a thorough and vivid picture of the London of the early to mid 1700's, from politics to pop culture, and shows us Hogarth's place in it. That is the reason this book is so huge -- it really is a snapshot of Hogarth's world, just as the subtitle suggests.
Another reason for the focus on Hogarth the artist and the man of his time is that there is relatively little information on Hogarth's personal life. But from what Uglow can show us, Hogarth was a pugnacious, vulgar, vain little homunculus, so too much study of his personality might have detracted from an appreciation of his accomplishments and ideals, both of which were sterling. It is probably for the best that we see Hogarth through the lens of his work and his time, as this is where his greatness lies.
And this book's greatness lies in its portrait of London in the eighteenth century, which is detailed, gossipy, and endlessly fascinating, running the gamut of events from lofty political doings at court to pop-culture crazes like Mary Tofts, the hoaxer who claimed to have given birth to rabbits. In her biography of London's most popular artist of his time, Jenny Uglow brings the entire city to brilliant life.
12 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
geo49e
5.0 out of 5 stars Hogarth
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2015
Verified Purchase
Very prompt delivery and good condition for that size of a book. A very interesting read about a very unusual man.
Helpful
 Report
bookwoman
5.0 out of 5 stars A tour de force
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2011
Verified Purchase
This is a real tour de force by Jenny Uglow, who is currently one of my favorite British biographers. A detailed study of Hogarth and his times, illuminated by sensitive discussions of his various artworks. Highly recommended!
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Craig Matteson
5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I could give this book SIX stars (* * * * * *)!
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2002
I would give this book six stars if I could. It is one of my favorite books of all time. More than any other book I have ever read I learned about the subject of the biography (Hogarth in this case) because of the beautiful way the author placed him in his time. By learning about Hogarth's world we can learn so much about the artistic fashions of his time and how that influenced the way he made his art. We also learn about the influence Hogarth's artistic genius had in re-shaping that world and the artists who followed him.

We learn about his family ties to the court and his failed ambitions there. But his ambitions for his art were even higher and there he succeeded to our great benefit. We also learn about his quirky personality, how his friends described him, and their wonderful stories of their life with him. Hogarth was as amazing a character as any he drew.

The book is also full of wonderfully reproduced art in black and white and a generous number of works are reproduced in color. Ms Uglow gives us in depth and wonderfully insightful instruction about all these works. It is a big book, but one I believe you will always treasure having read. It is brilliantly written. This book has a prominent place in my library and one I urge everyone to read. It is a treasure.

Here is Uglow's recent and wonderful biography of Thomas Bewick:

 Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick
26 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Wagner fiend
3.0 out of 5 stars Informative but over-written
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 1998
Though the subject is an obscure one, even for the English, the usefulness of Uglow's research is compromised by the fulsomeness of her writing. She will apply four descriptive clauses to an engravng when one well chosen one would be enough to stimulate imaginative understanding. It is also distressing that Uglow arrives at virtually the same conclusions, draws the same moral messages, about whatever sets of engravings she discusses. Was the man so monotonous? Or is it the biographer?
9 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Cecil Fox
5.0 out of 5 stars A splendid book that provides a fresh look into the man
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 1998
As an occasional student of Hogarth and his period I had been subject to the thesis-like and largely unreadable efforts to find something "new" about that tiny and precious man. Dear Jenny (as I now think of her), has produced a brilliant picture that is believable without intrusive arguments or batteries of boring illusions or references. One caveat- you either need a rather large magnifying glass to appreciate the many figures and plates or access to at least a folio collection of prints.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
ALEXANDRE D
4.0 out of 5 stars Hogarth, reflet de son temps
Reviewed in France on September 30, 2014
Verified Purchase
Comment un modeste graveur devient un des plus grands peintres anglais, mais aussi humoriste, philanthrope, et moraliste. Sa vie nous plonge dans une période fascinante de l'histoire de l'Angleterre. Un homme moderne, présenté par la très vivante J. Uglow, dans un texte enlevé.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
Deb
5.0 out of 5 stars a gem of a book on Hogarth
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2012
Verified Purchase
this book was an inspiration. Not only was the subject a thoroughly British icon (I remember his pictures from school history books), but this book about him was wonderfully erudite but readable. I was transported into the London of his time. Jenny Uglow's style is perfect for the modern reader. So impressive was her work, I was inspired by this book to write one of my own, now published on Amazon and called John Lofting by Deb Daniels.
Not only that, I had never been to a literature festival before, but when I heard Jenny Uglow would be at the Ilkley Literature Festival in September 2012, I just had to go. I was not disappointed. She talked about her latest book The Pinecone, which I also bought on Amazon (and which she signed for me). What a modest and fascinating author she is. I highly recommend anything at all written by her. John Lofting: 1
John Lofting: 1
4 people found this helpful
 Report
starling
5.0 out of 5 stars Treat and Triumph
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2015
Verified Purchase
This book gives much more than a life of Hogarth, as declared in the title, and his surrounding are necessary because Hogarth was an artist so involved with his society, commenting on it and promoting changes through his work, not the least of which were his work with wonderful Captain Coram to found and establish the Foundling Hospital.

It is a lively description, bringing details of street and everyday life that I expect most of us need to be reminded of. The book is big and heavy, and for once I recommend the Kindle edition, which on an iPad provides large coloured images which the reader can enlarge. Yet another first class example of Jenny Uglow's skills.
10 people found this helpful
 Report
SnowSun
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written (but for me at times overly detailed)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2024
Verified Purchase
This was such a joy to read to begin with. One gets a wonderful sense of time and place in 18th century London. Really full and alive. Hogarth’s artistic work explained so well, and you also get a sense of the man. The writing is often beautiful and crystal clear. My only criticism was the amount of detail at times in this 700 paged book. Sometimes this detail was welcome and gave a fuller picture, but at other times it was too much for this reader and I had to skim-read parts as the book progressed. Perhaps it depends on your particular areas of interest.
Report
sjgwrites
3.0 out of 5 stars The Artist's Progress
Reviewed in Canada on January 13, 2015
Verified Purchase
Great insights into the man and the times. Would have liked less detailed description of the pictures, and more on the private life- though there probably is little documentation to support that. Helped me look at the familiar pictures with fresh eyes.
Report