Somewhere becoming rain : collected writings on Philip Larkin / Clive James.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

James, Clive, 1939-2019, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Larkin, Philip--Criticism and interpretation.

Larkin, Philip.

English poetry--20th century--History and criticism.

English poetry.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xii, 94 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Other Title:

Collected writings on Philip Larkin

Place of Publication:

London : Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, 2019.

Summary:

A love letter from one of the world's best living writers to one of its most cherished poets. Clive James is a life-long admirer of the work of Philip Larkin. Somewhere Becoming Rain gathers all of James's writing on this towering literary figure of the twentieth century, together with extra material now published for the first time. The greatness of Larkin's poetry continues to be obscured by the opprobrium attaching to his personal life and his private opinions. James writes about Larkin's poems, his novels, his jazz and literary criticism; he also considers the two major biographies, Larkin's letters and even his portrayal on stage in order to chart the extreme and, he argues, largely misguided equivocations about Larkin's reputation in the years since his death. Through this joyous and perceptive book, Larkin's genius is delineated and celebrated. James argues that Larkin's poems, adored by discriminating readers for over half a century, could only have been the product of his reticent, diffident, flawed, and all-too-human personality. Erudite and entertaining in equal measure, Somewhere Becoming Rain is a love letter from one of the world's best living writers to one of its most cherished poets.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Somewhere Becoming Rain

Wolves of Memory

Smaller and Clearer

Yeats v. Hardy in Davie's Larkin

The North Window

On Larkin's Wit

An Affair of Sanity

A Valediction for Philip Larkin

Getting Larkin's Number

Postscript to `An Affair of Sanity'

Larkin Treads the Boards

Life, Art, Love, and Like That

Philip Larkin: Letters Home 1936-1977.

ISBN:

1529028825

9781529028829

OCLC:

1091296766