Overview

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 Dobr?e, 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.

Full Product Details

Author:   John Haffenden (Professor of English Literature, University of Sheffield)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 4.70cm , Length: 23.30cm
Weight:   1.174kg
ISBN:  

9780199539864

ISBN 10:   0199539863
Pages:   792
Publication Date:   22 January 2009
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

1: The BBC War 2: The War within the BBC 3: Chinabound 4: Sounding the South: Kenyon College, Summer 1948 5: Siege and Liberation 6: The New China 7: Changes in China; and Kenyon Again 8: Quitting Communist china 9: Final Reckoning: The Affair of Fei Hsiao-t'ung 10: 'A Mighty Raspberry': iThe Structure of Complex Words/i 11: Homing to Yorkshire 12: From Poetry to the Queen 13: Ménage a Trois 14: The Anti-Christian: iMilton's God/i 15: 'They think good literature is a tremendous scolding': From Sheffield to Legon 16: The Road to Retirement 17: Rescuing Donne and Coleridge 18: Roamings in Retirement 19: iFaustus/i: Finale Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Note on the text Table of dates List of resipients and dates Text of letters Glossary of names Index

Reviews

superlative Ian Donaldson Australian Book Review

superlative * Ian Donaldson Australian Book Review *

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions