I think the final chapters of Motion's biog of Keats are the best in the book. The pages on the dreadful voyage to Italy with Severn and their last months together in Naples, then Rome, have an hallucinatory power, as if you're there with them. The biographer is particularly good at bringing Keats's friends to life and, for me, Severn emerges as a fascinating, touching figure in himself. Strange that however disregarded and unrecognised JK felt at the end there were those who seemed to know the greatness of what they were dealing with all along. And what a gift for friendship he had, despite his isolation. Given the current fashion for 'group biography' I reckon the group that seemed to form around Keats would make for an illuminating volume.
One small point: I'd love to know what became of the Miss Cotterell that Severn & Keats encountered on their journey to Italy. She too was dying from consumption and was only eighteen (when Keats was twenty-five.) By the sound of it she was remarkably brave as well. It'd be nice to think she managed a few more years of life than the great poet. Somehow I doubt it.
The little tragedies are as sad as the greatest.
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