SHAKESPEARE IN AN AGE OF ANXIETY: John Lucas admires Neville Grant’s new study of Shakespeare’s plays prior to 1603 – and is already impatient for a sequel
literature
CONTRAFLOW: Paul McDonald finds some surprises in a new and unusual anthology of English poetry from the last hundred years
THE PROCESS OF POETRY: Roger Caldwell browses an instructive selection of case studies in poetic composition compiled by Rosanna McGlone
Poetry review – EDGAR: Stephen Claughton considers Malcolm Carson’s extended exploration of a poetic persona
SUPER-INFINITE: Kevin Saving looks at Katherine Rundell’s recent study of John Donne
Decadent Women. Review by Alan Price. Jad Adam’s book is the first to document the female contribution to a journal that began to be associated with the blanket term decadence. From 1894 to 1897 it was London’s most chic publication that new writers clamoured to be in.
THINGS BEING VARIOUS: John Lucas discusses two very different works by Neil Curry – a monograph on Horace Walpole and a slim volume of delicate and well-observed poetry
THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN – Under Milk Wood seventy years on: an appreciation by Kevin Saving
THE TREASURIES, POETRY ANTHOLOGIES AND THE MAKING OF BRITISH CULTURE: Kevin Saving considers Clare Bucknell’s study of the history of the British poetry anthology
THE WIFE OF WILLESDEN: Charles Rammelkamp takes a transatlantic look at Zadie Smith’s updating of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath
The Aphorisms of Franz Kafka. Review by Alan Price. When you think of the name Franz Kafka those famous and familiar titles, The Trial, The Castle, America, In the Penal Colony and Metamorphosis are the first to be hung round the nervous neck of Franz.
HARDY WOMEN: MOTHER, SISTERS, WIVES, MUSES: Kevin Saving reviews Paula Byrne’s extensive examination of significant women in Thomas Hardy’s life
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • authors, books, literature, year 2024 0 • Tags: authors, books, Kevin Saving, literature