New Larkins for Old: Critical Essays [Hardcover]

'A brilliant gathering of contrasting views, this book sends one back to Larkin's work armed with a whole new range of perceptions. There's plenty to argue with, but nothing one can quite ignore.' - Anthony Thwaite

'These 'new Larkins' are fresh, vigorous, challenging reconstructions of a reputation which has prompted fierce debate since the poet's death. New Larkins for Old is an important book, confirming Larkin's status not simply as a much-loved English poet, but as a major writer of the twentieth century.' - Andrew Swarbrick, Author of Out of Reach: The Poetry of Philip Larkin --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Larkin's work continues to yield fresh and sometimes surprising readings. This volume juxtaposes widely different essays by established commentators and younger critics from England, Northern Ireland, the USA, Canada, Belgium and Hungary. Individual contributors discuss Larkin's unpublished fiction and the journals of his lover, Patsy Strang. Others examine Larkin's novels and poetry in the light of existentialist philosophy, psychoanalysis, postmodern, postcolonial and Bakhtinian theories. Some contributors define Larkin's Englishness in relation to forerunners such as Lawrence, Eliot, Auden and MacNeice, or anchor his work in the malaise of postwar Britain. Other contributors search out mystical, placeless, 'factless' or aesthetic Larkins who transcend such historicist readings. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

JAMES BOOTH has taught at the University of Hull, where he is currently Reader in English, since 1968. His publications include Writers and Politics in Nigeria, Philip Larkin Writer and Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles 48: Northern Museums. He is currently editing Larkin's unpublished fiction. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.