Style and faith / Geoffrey Hill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hill, Geoffrey.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--Early modern, 1500-1700--History and criticism.

English literature.

Christianity and literature--England--History--16th century.

Christianity and literature.

England.

History.

Christian literature, English--History and criticism.

Christian literature, English.

English language--Early modern, 1500-1700--Style.

English language.

English language--Early modern--Style.

Authorship--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Authorship.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xiv, 218 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Counterpoint, [2003]

Summary:

In this, his first collection of essays in more than a decade, Geoffrey Hill addresses matters crucial to the task of the writer and to the life of a reader -- matters of style and faith. It is a matter of great difficulty -- and of great artistic and moral responsibility -- for a writer to find words and forms fitting for the truth. It is also a matter of great difficulty for readers to recognize, with both a critical mind and a receptive heart, truly inspired writing when they experience it -- to seize that instant when, in Hill's words, they receive a sense of things inaccessible suddenly made accessible, and of grammar and desire miraculously at one. "The effect may appear to be studied (as in Milton or Hopkins) or spontaneous (as in the Wesleys or Wordsworth)," but, if we are alive to it, "what delights and silences us is the sustained moment of communion between eloquence and apprehension." In these seven essays, whose subjects include the Holy Bible and its English translators, and Hobbes's Leviathan and its contemporary critics, Hill shows us that in most instances, and despite the best intentions, style and faith remain obdurately apart. But he also shows us that when the two are in accord, as they are in certain works by Hooker, Burton, Herbert, Vaughan, and Donne, poetry and prose are something more than a momentary stay against confusion; they are witnesses against the enemies of truth.

Contents:

Common Weal, Common Woe 1

Of Diligence and Jeopardy 21

Keeping to the Middle Way 45

A Pharisee to Pharisees 71

The Eloquence of Sober Truth 89

The Weight of the Word 117

Dividing Legacies 141.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-204) and indexes.

Local Notes:

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has dustjacket retained.

ISBN:

1582431078

OCLC:

51566440