The Immortal Evening

Written with great eloquence and insight, this meticulously detailed historical recreation from Plumly (Immortal Yeats) breathes life into a pivotal moment in the British Romantic era. On December 28, 1817, Benjamin Haydon, a painter of historical canvases, hosted a small dinner for his friends William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Charles Lamb, all on the cusp of literary immortality. The purpose of the “immortal dinner,” as Haydon later referred to it, was to show off his three years of progress on Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, a massive painting into which he had incorporated the faces of all three friends. By 1820, when the canvas was finally finished, Wordsworth was recognized as England’s greatest living poet, Keats had written his most memorable verse, Lamb was a renowned essayist, and Haydon was himself enjoying a brief spurt of the fame that eluded him most of his career. Although Plumly devotes little more than a chapter to the raucous, lively dinner itself, it allows him to delve into events leading up to it and resulting from it, and to offer astute assessments of the principals’ worldviews and aesthetics. The colorful portrait he paints is that of a select artistic fraternity, frequently contrary in their opinions and attitudes, who nevertheless knew that they were making a significant impact on the spirit of their age. Agent: Rob McQuilken, Massie, McQuilken. (Oct.)