The biography follows its subject from family origins and childhood through schooling, early professional development, marriage, and emergence as a poet and novelist; it charts creative output, friendships and collaborations, public reputation, severe financial reverses and strenuous efforts to meet obligations, and final years and death. Genealogical detail, critical appraisal of major works, personal description, and appended Abbotsford notes on domestic life and the estate provide a compact popular memoir.