Nicholas Boyle FBA (born 18 June 1946) is an English literary critic. He is the emeritus Schröder Professor of German at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He has written widely on German literature, intellectual history and religion and is known particularly for his award-winning extensive biography of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

(of which two of a projected three volumes have been published). Boyle became a fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

in 2000. Boyle's biography of Goethe currently runs to two volumes and he is writing the third.

George Steiner Francis George Steiner, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the ...

has called him a 'critic of vivacious perspicacity' and compares the scope of his work to "

Lord Bullock Alan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock, (13 December 1914 – 2 February 2004) was a British historian. He is best known for his book '' Hitler: A Study in Tyranny'' (1952), the first comprehensive biography of Adolf Hitler, which influence ...

's double portraits of

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

and

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

, Richard Holmes's

Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

, David Cairns's Berlioz, Michael Holroyd's Shaw, Richardson's Picasso", whilst ''The New York Times Book Review'' describes his biography as a 'remarkable achievement', adding that 'there is nothing comparable to this study in any language'. The biography has been translated into German by Holger Fliessbach. The

Goethe Institut The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...

awarded Boyle their

Goethe Medal The Goethe Medal, also known as the Goethe-Medaille, is a yearly prize given by the Goethe-Institut honoring non-Germans "who have performed outstanding service for the German language and for international cultural relations". It is an offici ...

in 2000. The second volume was shortlisted for the

Book Prize in 2001. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and four children.

''Financial Times'' letter

In 2017, one of Boyle's letters to the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'' went viral. In the letter, Boyle responded to a Big Read article ("Braced for the fall") published on 5 July 2017. In the article, it was stated that the pro-

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

wing of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

are to be known as 'fuckers', while their opponents are to be known as 'wankers'. Boyle opined that "this rhetoric inverts the truth", as "it is the Europhobes who shut themselves away in self-gratifying fantasies, while the Remainers know that real life is possible only through interaction with others". Boyle's letter was described as outstanding and the "letter of the decade" by editor Lionel Barber, and was shared across multiple online platforms.

Bibliography

* Nicholas Boyle, Martin Swales and Joseph Peter Stern (eds.), ''Realism in European literature: essays in honour of JP Stern'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) * Nicholas Boyle, ''Goethe: Faust Part One'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) * Nicholas Boyle, ''Goethe: The Poet and the Age: Volume I: The Poetry of Desire (1749–1790)'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) * Introduction to ''Selected works: including The Sorrows of Young Werther, Elective Affinities, Italian Journey, Faust'' New York: A.A. Knopf, 2000, 1999.

Everyman's Library Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division of Weidenfeld & N ...

#246 * Nicholas Boyle, ''Who Are We Now?: Christian Humanism and the Global Market from Hegel to Heaney'' (Continuum, 2000) * Nicholas Boyle, ''Goethe: The Poet and the Age Volume II: Revolution and Renunciation, 1790–1803'' (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2000) * Nicholas Boyle and John Guthrie (eds.) ''Goethe and the English-speaking World'' (Boydell and Brewer, 2002) * Nicholas Boyle, ''Sacred and Secular Scriptures: A Catholic Approach to Literature'' (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004) * Nicholas Boyle, ''German Literature: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) * Nicholas Boyle, ''2014 – How to Survive the Next World Crisis'' (Continuum Books, 2010)

References

External links

Boyle's Profile at the University of Cambridge Department of German and Dutch

Review of ''Goethe: The Poet and the Age'' Vol II by

, ''The Guardian'',30 January 2000.
Review of ''Goethe: The Poet and the Age'' Vol II
by R. Stephenson, ''Modern Language Review'' 97 pp. 484–487. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, Nicholas English literary critics Literary critics of German Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Living people 1946 births Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities