Description
Book SynopsisA series of essays exploring aspects of the literary and intellectual culture of Britain from the early twentieth century to the present, focussing on critics and historians who wrote for a non-specialist readership, and on the periodicals and other genres through which they attempted to reach that readership.
Trade ReviewCollini is the reviewer par excellence of our age. * David Stack, English Historical Review. *
These chapters are erudite, beautifully written, and impressive in their historical breadth. * English *
Collini...writes with lively wit and insight. Penetrating, down-to-earth, often hilarious, these essays are perfect brain food * Christopher Hirst, The Independent *
The chapters are erudite, beautifully written, and impressive in their historical breadth... this book... represents clear proof that had he written nothing else, Collini would still be one of the few academics reviewing today whose work deserves reprinting in collected form. * Mary Hammond, English *
Books do furnish a mind, and in a form that bailiffs cannot repossess. Collini is that rare bird, a don who can be read with pleasure by the non-specialist reader, to whom this book is addressed. * Michael Barber, Books of the Year, The Tablet *
Table of ContentsPART ONE: WRITING LIVES ; 1. On not getting on with it: the criticism of Cyril Connolly ; 2. Rolling it out: V. S. Pritchett's writing life ; 3. The Great Seer: Aldous Huxley's visions ; 4. Performance: the critical authority of Rebecca West ; 5. Man of letters as hero: the energy of Edmund Wilson ; 6. Plain speaking: the lives of George Orwell ; 7. Believing in oneself: the career of Stephen Spender ; 8. Smacking: the letters of William Empson ; 9. Disappointment: A. L. Rowse in his diaries ; 10. Believing in England: Arthur Bryant, historian as man of letters ; 11. Believing in history: Herbert Butterfield, Christian and Whig ; 12. The intellectual as realist: the puzzling career of E. H. Carr ; 13. Enduring passion: E. H. Thompson's reputation ; 14. Olympian universalism: Perry Anderson as essayist ; 15. Hegel in green wellies: Roger Scruton's England ; PART TWO: READING MATTERS ; 16. 'The Great Age': the idealizing of Victorian culture ; 17. Always dying: the idea of the general periodical ; 18. Boomster and the Quack: the author as celebrity ; 19. Private reading: the autodidact public ; 20. The completest mode: the literary critic as hero ; 21. From deference to diversity: 'culture' in Britain 1945-2000 ; 22. Well connected: biography and intellectual elites ; 23. National lives: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ; 24. HiEdBiz: universities and their publics ; References ; Acknowledgements ; Index
