Davenport-Hines, Richard 1953- (R.P.T. Davenport-Hines, Richard Peter Treadwell Davenport-Hines)

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Davenport-Hines, Richard 1953- (R.P.T. Davenport-Hines, Richard Peter Treadwell Davenport-Hines)

PERSONAL:

Born June 21, 1953, in London, England; son of John (a property developer) and June Patricia Pearson; married Frances Jane Davenport (a management consultant), May 20, 1978; children: Hugo Denzil Rufus, Cosmo Rory Hector Albertyn. Education: Attended Selwyn College, Cambridge, 1972-77, received M.A. and Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, historian, and radio broadcaster. University of London, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, England, research officer, 1982-86.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fellow, Royal Historical Society, 1984; Wolfson Prize for history and biography, 1985; Wadsworth Literary Prize, 1986; fellow, Royal Society of Literature, 2005.

WRITINGS:

Sex, Death, and Punishment: Attitudes to Sex and Sexuality in Britain Since the Renaissance, Collins (London, England), 1990.

The Macmillans, Heinemann (London, England), 1992.

Auden, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil, and Ruin, North Point Press (New York, NY), 1999.

The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, 1500-2000, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 2001, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

Proust at the Majestic: The Last Days of the Author Whose Book Changed Paris, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2006, published in England as A Night at the Majestic, Faber (London, England), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Nature, New Statesman, and Business.

AS R.P.T. DAVENPORT-HINES

Dudley Docker, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1984.

(Editor) Speculators and Patriots, Cass (Totowa, NJ), 1986.

(Editor) Markets and Bagmen, Gower (Brookfield, VT), 1986.

(Editor) British Business in Asia since 1860, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Glaxo: A History to 1962, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

SIDELIGHTS:

Richard Davenport-Hines is a writer and historian who has written about a wide range of historical events and figures. In Auden, Davenport-Hines offers a biography of the noted poet W.H. Auden. "Reading this new biography is an experience in some ways like that of reading W.H. Auden himself," wrote James Bowman in the National Review. "It is by turns bright and breezily witty, darkly but shrewdly profound, and infuriatingly obscure and allusive. Most interestingly, it allows us to see Auden's life, taken as a whole, as a progression." New York Times Book Review contributor Christopher Lehmann-Haupt referred to Auden as "arresting" and added that "everything that Mr. Davenport-Hines touches upon is relevant to Auden's poetry."

The author examines the excesses and perversity of Gothic art forms in his book Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil, and Ruin. Ted Loos, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called the author "an astute guide for the trip downward." Conor O'Connor, writing on the Rambles Web site, noted: "In this book the analysis is often deep but never dull." O'Connor went on to call Gothic "a scholarly well-researched work of cultural and political history, which does justice to its subject."

The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, 1500-2000 "provides a thorough and exhaustive history of addictive drugs and their abuse, spanning the globe and covering all eras," as noted by Philip Y. Blue in the Library Journal. The author discusses both well-known abused drugs such as heroin and cocaine, as well as herbs and various weeds that have been used as narcotics. In his historical account of narcotics, the author details such "sanctioned" uses as the one-time practice of giving cocaine to miners and plantation workers in hot climates to help them maintain stamina and work harder. Davenport-Hines discusses how various governments have tried to deal with drug abuse, and he details some of its side effects on society, such as its impact on health care and its relationship with organized crime. Finally, the author delves into various treatment and rehabilitation approaches to cure drug abuse. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called The Pursuit of Oblivion "a well-drawn, comprehensive account of a troubling subject." A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted Davenport-Hines's "strong writing" and that the author "offers a sharply opinionated history of drugs." Christine Kenneally, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called The Pursuit of Oblivion "a history of drug taking that is dense with scholarship and … highly absorbing." Kenneally went on to write: "Because the book spans continents, millenniums and subjects, from the opium habit of Emperor Marcus Aurelius to the invention of hypodermic needles, the sheer volume of detail … makes it demanding to read. But it is an extremely impressive work."

In his book Proust at the Majestic: The Last Days of the Author Whose Book Changed Paris, published in England as A Night at the Majestic, Davenport-Hines recounts the last six months in the life of writer Marcel Proust. He begins the book by reflecting on a notable dinner that Proust attended six months before he died. Held at the Majestic Hotel following a ballet performance, the dinner included the art-patron hosts, members of the ballet, and such notables as the artist Pablo Picasso and writer James Joyce. Joyce and Proust had never met before and this occasion is the only time the two were known to have been in the same room together. "This book is a fine example of how a well chosen example of a petite histoire can be used to illuminate events on a grand scale," wrote Jerome Kuehl, in History Today. Kuehl went on to note: "The big game he's loaded for is Proust himself, and the tale of the night at the Majestic takes up only the first chapter of this substantial book." As a result, as noted by Kuehl, "the bulk of the work is devoted to a meticulous examination of Proust's sexual ambiguity, his snobbery, his capacity to take offence, … his insatiable and intrusive curiosity about the minutiae of the lives of servants, … as well as dukes, duchesses and princes, his hypochondria, his complex relations with Judaism, his duels, his investment in a male brothel, as well as his well-attested acts of generosity and kindness." In her review of the book in Time Australia, Ann Morrison noted that the author "brilliantly reimagines this unique-in-art-history event, setting the five-star diners in their Modernist context." Morrison added that "this book can be judged a feast for Proust fans." Writing in Library Journal, Erica Swanson Danowitz, noted that Proust at the Majestic has "many fascinating passages."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Economist, November 24, 2001, review of The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics, 1500-2000, pp. 78-79.

Guardian (London, England), February 11, 2006, Simon Callow, review of A Night at the Majestic.

Harper's, June, 2006, John Leonard, review of Proust at the Majestic: The Last Days of the Author Whose Book Changed Paris, p. 86.

History Today, July, 2006, Jerome Kuehl, review of A Night at the Majestic, pp. 65-66.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2002, review of The Pursuit of Oblivion, p. 852.

Library Journal, August 15, 2002, Philip Y. Blue, review of The Pursuit of Oblivion, p. 115; May 1, 2006, Erica Swanson Danowitz, review of Proust at the Majestic, p. 86.

Maclean's December 31, 2001, review of The Pursuit of Oblivion, p. 83.

National Review, April 8, 1996, James Bowman, review of Auden, pp. 52-53.

New York Times Book Review, February 15, 1996, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Auden; September 12, 1999, Ted Loos, review of Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil, and Ruin; September 29, 2002, Christine Kenneally, review of The Pursuit of Oblivion; June 11, 2006, Daniel Swift, review of Proust at the Majestic.

Observer (London, England), January 29, 2006, Peter Conrad, review of A Night at the Majestic.

Publishers Weekly, June 3, 2002, review of The Pursuit of Oblivion, p. 73; April 24, 2006, review of Proust at the Majestic, p. 51.

Time Australia, April 24, 2006, Ann Morrison, review of A Night at the Majestic, p. 62.

Village Voice, July 21-27, 1999, Elizabeth Hand, review of Gothic.