Selected Letters of William Empson - Rilegato

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0199286841 ISBN 13: 9780199286843

Casa editrice: OUP Oxford, 2006

Riassunto

This edited collection of letters by William Empson (1906-1984), one of the foremost writers and literary critics of the twentieth century, ranges across the entirety of his career. Parts of the correspondence record the development of ideas that were to come to fruition in seminal texts including Seven Types of Ambiguity, The Structure of Complex Words, and Milton's God. The topics of other letters range from Shakespeare's Dark Lady to Marvell's marriage and Byron's bisexuality. Empson relished correspondence that was combative, if not downright aggressive. As a result, parts of this edition take the form of a serial disputation with other critics of the period, including Frank Kermode, Helen Gardner, Philip Hobsbaum, and I. A. Richards. Other notable correspondents include A. Alvarez, Bonamy Dobrée, Leslie Fiedler, Graham Hough, C. K. Ogden, George Orwell, Kathleen Raine, John Crowe Ransom, Christopher Ricks, Laura Riding, A. L. Rowse, Stephen Spender, E. M. W. Tillyard, Rosemond Tuve, John Wain, and G. Wilson Knight.

All readers of literary history and criticism will stand to benefit from this edition. Empson is universally credited as the man who 'invented' modern literary criticism, so that all of his writings make a signal addition to the canon of his works. This selection provides a context for the evaluation of Empson's total literary output; and in many letters Empson seeks to defend his ideas against both published and personal attacks. This volume not only fills in all the missing links, it adds up to a completely new volume of critical writings by Empson.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

John Haffenden's fine edition of Empson's Selected Letters contains many gems...One of the many strengths and pleasures of this edition is the way in which Haffenden's editorial labours allow us to situate Empson's line of thought. (Matthew Bevis, The Cambridge Quarterley)

superlative (Ian Donaldson Australian Book Review)

These letters give us more of the Empson we know from the prose, and like the prose they are a startling education in what reading can be, and why it might matter. (Adam Phillips, London Review of Books)

No collection of letters by any writer I'm aware of comes even close to matching these 50 years worth of continuing argument about literature, the criticism and teaching of which made up Empson's life (Washinton Times)

this edition is authoritative. impeccable and very usable. (Stefan Collini, Times Literary Supplement)

Few critics have done more for poetry than Empson (1906-1984); few have led stranger or more adventurous lives.... Empson's travels make entertaining reading.... The main reason for reading Empson's own writings is to see what he made of the authors he cherished. (He was the best reader Donne ever had.)... In an era when readers debate whether poetry matters, it helps to remember a man who defended it, and pursued his own arguments about it, even to the ends of the earth. (New York Times Book Review)

This is a splendid book. There is something to enjoy on every page. (The Review of English Studies, Vol. 58, no. 233)

L'autore:

John Haffenden is Professor of English Literature at the University of Sheffield. His books include The Life of John Berryman, W. H. Auden: The Critical Heritage, Viewpoints: Poets in Conversation, and Novelists in Interview; and he has edited Berryman's Shakespeare and several collections by William Empson including Complete Poems. The first volume of a biography, William Empson: Among the Mandarins, was published in 2005. Haffenden is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the English Association, and has been a British Academy Research Reader and a Leverhulme Research Fellow.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: OUP Oxford
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0199286841
• ISBN 13: 9780199286843
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 792
• Redattore: Haffenden John