The good Brexiteer's guide to English lit / John Sutherland.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sutherland, John, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--History and criticism.

English literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London : Reaktion Books, Limited, [2018]

Summary:

What is Nigel Farage's favorite novel? Why do Brexiteers love Sherlock Holmes? Is Philip Larkin the best Brexit poet ever? Through the politically relevant sideroad of English Literature, writ large, John Sutherland quarries the great literary minds of English history to assemble the ultimate reading list for Brexiteers.Brexit shook Britain to its roots and sent shockwaves across the world. But despite the referendum victory, Brexit is peculiarly hollow. It is an idea without political apparatus, without sustaining history, without field-tested ideology. As Sutherland argues: it is without thinkers-like Frankenstein waiting for the lightning bolt. In this irreverent, entertaining, and utterly tongue-in-cheek new guide, Sutherland suggests some stuffing for the ideological vacuity at the heart of the Brexit cause. He looks for meaning in the works of William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Thomas Hardy; in modern classics like The Queen and I and London Fields; and in the British national anthem, school songs, and poetry.Exploring what Britain meant, means, and will mean, Sutherland subtly shows how great literary works have a shaping influence on the world. Witty and insightful, and with a preface by Guardian columnist and critic John Crace, this book belongs on the shelves of anyone seeking to understand the bragging Brexiteers (and the many diehard Remoaners, too).

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Imprint Page

Contents

Preface by John Crace

Introduction

The Battle of Maldon

Domesday Book

The Tattooed Heart

Malory and King Arthur: The Literary Invention of England

The Literature of the People

The Bloudie Crosse

The Brexit Boadicea

Boadicea in Stone

Enter the Maybot, Clanking

Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum: I Smell the Blood of an Englishman!

Shakespeare: 'This England'

The Oxford Book of English Verse

School Songsters

Brexiteers, Buccaneers, Musketeers

or, 'Up Yours, Señors!'

Dickens, Anti-Brexiteer Extraordinaire

Our National Anthem

Gibbon: The Congenital British Non Serviam

Ivanhoe and the Norman Yoke

Jane Austen's 'England'

W. E. Henley

Rivers of Blood Wash over Our Green and Pleasant Land

Brexit's Green and Pleasant Land

A. E. Housman and Thomas Hardy

DNB/OED

Land of Hope and Glory

Orwell: Quarter-French, Wholly English

Rhodes Must Fall. Kipling Must Go. Buchan Goes On and On

Kipling Again

Nigel Farage's Favourite Novel

King Solomon's (Not Africa's) Mines

Lady Chatterley's Lover: 'Old England' is Gone Forever

The Amis Objection

Philip Larkin: The Greatest English Poet of Our Time

Why the Brexiteer Loves Sherlock

Mad Dogs and Englishmen (and Jeeves)

The End of Jeeves

Invasion by Immigration - From Calais, Mars or Wherever

Dracula: Illegal Immigrant

God Loves England (Does He Not?)

Flashman

Goldfinger

The Poison Cabinet

Lost Englands

Virginia Woolf's Farewell to England (and the World)

The Queen and I

The Children of Men

London Fields

England, England

Take to the Boats!

McEwan's Objection

Hail Hilary!

The Satanic Verses: 'Not English!'

Epilogue

References

Acknowledgements.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781789140149

1789140145