Francis Bacon: Revelations
Reviews
“[M]agnificent…. I was captivated by every line.…This book’s great achievement is that it does not confuse flexibility in the matter of relationships with insincerity, nor ravenous desire with decadence. Bacon, you come to understand, was fundamentally serious and fundamentally loving.”
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Booklist Starred Review: Authoritative and immersive
“[An] authoritative and immersive account.…It is Bacon’s complexity and daring that Stevens and Swan illuminate so precisely in this surpassingly literary biography.”
Elizabeth Joseph, “Francis Bacon: Revelations,” Starred Review, Booklist, March 1, 2021.
The Guardian: Utterly Compelling
“Bacon always insisted that he was simply portraying the reality of the conditions that had shaped him…. The power of this meticulously researched and utterly compelling biography lies not just in the confidence with which it demonstrates the truth of that statement, but in its quieter revelations.”
Elizabeth Lowry, ”Francis Bacon: Revelations review – a landmark biography,” The Guardian, February 10, 2021.
The Observer: A captivating triumph
“[M]agnificent…. I was captivated by every line…. This book’s great achievement is that it does not confuse flexibility in the matter of relationships with insincerity, nor ravenous desire with decadence. Bacon, you come to understand, was fundamentally serious and fundamentally loving.”
“[M]agnificent…. I was captivated by every line.…This book digs deeply into the peat of [Bacon’s childhood].…[W]here [the authors] really triumph is in their sympathetic, psychologically convincing accounts of his love life.…This book’s great achievement is that it does not confuse flexibility in the matter of relationships with insincerity, nor ravenous desire with decadence. Bacon, you come to understand, was fundamentally serious and fundamentally loving.”
Rachel Cooke. “Francis Bacon: Revelations by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan review – a captivating triumph.” Observer Book of the Week, The Guardian, January 17, 2021.
Note: This review appeared in the print edition of The Observer and online at The Guardian.
The Times (UK): Definitive
“[W]here this biography soars above rivals is where its authors … probe beneath the façade … and analyse what lay beneath the mask…. This is a biography that … must surely count as definitive.”
“[A] biography that no Bacon fan … can afford to overlook … the prose flows swiftly and elegantly … presents a mesmerising portrait … riveting anecdotes … where this biography soars above rivals is where its authors … probe beneath the façade … and analyse what lay beneath the mask … This is a biography that … must surely count as definitive.”
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Rachel Campbell-Johnston. “Francis Bacon by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan review — the iconoclast who found glory in squalor.” The Times, January16, 2021.
Kirkus Starred Review: Unflinching
“Bacon once ‘remarked that it would take a Proust’ to do him justice. Hyperbole, to be sure, but Stevens and Swan are up to the task of demonstrating the many complexities of an intense, significant artistic life.… An unflinching portrayal of an often unwieldy character—further proof of Bacon’s enduring influence.”
“Bacon once ‘remarked that it would take a Proust’ to do him justice. Hyperbole, to be sure, but Stevens and Swan are up to the task of demonstrating the many complexities of an intense, significant artistic life.
An unflinching portrayal of an often unwieldy character — further proof of Bacon’s enduring influence.”
“Review: Francis Bacon: Revelations,” Starred Review, Kirkus, November 24, 2020.