MacFadyen shows that the works of John Donne, the existential philosophy of Kierkegaard and Sestov, and the cities of St Petersburg and Venice inspired in Brodsky a fundamentally Baroque evolution. He provides a compelling and comprehensive examination of Brodsky's poetry and prose in a fascinating overview of some problems of post-soviet aesthetics. The book concludes with a reassessment of Brodsky's final role, that of cross-cultural, bilingual essayist.

Joseph Brodsky and the Baroque will appeal to students and scholars of Russian literature as well as the growing body of Brodsky's admirers.