Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A brilliant introduction to one of the most original and beguiling intellects of the 20th century."--Michael Dirda, Washington Post "An elegant and concise study of the great British literary critic William Empson (1906-1984)... If we come away with one thing from On Empson, it is the reminder, in the age of STEM courses, of just how much poetry matters--matters not on ethical or political grounds but simply for its own sake, for its exposure of the possibilities of the language that we use every waking moment of every day without taking into account its astonishing possibilities for knowledge, power, and, especially, pleasure."--Marjorie Perloff, Weekly Standard "Part of the dexterity of Wood's own critical idiom lies in using the resources of the colloquial register to say just enough, leaving us to complete and digest the thought. His stylish brevity avoids the dogmatising implicit in all attempts to turn an observation into a theory ... Wood even manages to make Milton's God (1961), Empson's grumpiest, most obsessive book, seem attractive ... An appropriately subtle yet spirited introduction to the seductive power of a particular form of literary criticism."--Stefan Collini, The Guardian
Table of Contents1 Empson's Intentions 1 2 The Strangeness of the World 26 3 Large Dreams 55 4 The Other Case 82 5 All in Flight 113 6 Sibylline Leaves 143 7 The Smoke of Hell 171 Acknowledgments 201 Abbreviations 203 Bibliography 207
