Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica
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'There are moments of great tenderness and insight ... this is a proper correspondence, intelligent but easy, fluent, encouraging; we see the charm and the point of sitting down, at the end of the day, or the beginning of an evening, and putting one's thoughts into writing, and sending them off to someone we love.' -- Guardian Paperback Choice>> 'Not only are they funny, sad and true; they are also charmingly replete with 1950s detail, evoking a world of curry-powder concoctions, rasping gas fires, and long but civilised train journeys.' -- Observer >> 'To lovers of the poetry, this selection of correspondence that lasted forty years is completely fascinating - not just for the inadvertent light it shines on the poetry but also for the elucidation of Larkin's own taste and his opinion of his own work and worth. The length and intimate nature of Larkin's relationship with Monica Jones gives the letters and the opinions they express a compelling authenticity and almost vunerable honesty.' -- William Boyd, TLS >> 'His low-key but oddly forceful personality is one of the things that comes out most vividly in the work - the letters are part of the poetry in that sense - and is a sort of poetic statement in itself.' -- Derek Mahon, Literary Review >> 'These are the most intimate letters of a major poet . . . Throughout, you can see the poems coming, poems you know by heart.' -- David Sexton, Evening Standard >> 'Philip Larkin is the best-loved poet of the last 100 years, and these irresistibly readable letters reveal the life and personality more intimately than ever before . . . He is constantly and inventively funny, concocting parodies and spoofs with loving care . . . the total effect is exhilarating. You feel sorry when you turn the last page. He said of Mansfield's journal that it made readers "more sensitive, more receptive, happier than before". These letters do the same.' -- John Carey, Sunday Times >> 'As an editor, Thwaite treads softly. His unobtrusive cuts give a shape to the letters, bringing Larkin's clear-eyed observations of love, work and his surroundings to the fore. Fans will find the drafts of his poems particularly thrilling.' -- Emma Hughes, Country Life >> 'Larkin's letters are affectionate, flirting, playful, even whimsical. There is something of Mass Observation about them - reflections on life, literature, domestic chores and personal feelings . . . one warms to the pair in their decent (if distanced) domesticity.' -- Iain Finlayson, The Times >> 'Not only are they funny, sad and true; they are also charmingly replete with 1950s detail, evoking a world of curry-powder concoctions, rasping gas fires, and long but civilised train journeys.' --Rachel Cooke, Oberserver Books of the Year
'Unfailingly exhilarating.' -- The Times >> 'Irresistibly readable ... exhilarating, and you feel sorry when you turn the last page.' --Sunday Times 'Our Choice'
'This superbly edited selection opens a fascinating window into the mind and spirit of Larkin ... I'd defy anyone to read this and not be impressed by his honesty, judgement and emotional intelligence.' --Mail on Sunday
'Peppered with wry humour and biting critiques, these letters are as much a social and cultural history as a reflection of his tenderness towards [Jones] ... exceptional.' --Irish Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
'Unfailingly exhilarating.' -- The Times >> 'Irresistibly readable ... exhilarating, and you feel sorry when you turn the last page.' --Sunday Times 'Our Choice'
'This superbly edited selection opens a fascinating window into the mind and spirit of Larkin ... I'd defy anyone to read this and not be impressed by his honesty, judgement and emotional intelligence.' --Mail on Sunday
'Peppered with wry humour and biting critiques, these letters are as much a social and cultural history as a reflection of his tenderness towards [Jones] ... exceptional.' --Irish Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
A remarkable collection of letters that reveals the unseen life of Philip Larkin.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This volume is a wonderful addition to the already published Selected Letters both edited with scrupulous care and sympathy by Anthony Thwaite. Larkins relationship with Monica Jones is covered from 1946 through to 1984 when they lived together, in part due to Larkins wish to look after Monica after she hurt herself in a fall. The letters are a wonderful mixture of the mundanities of life as Larkin struggles to live in "digs" that are always plagued by noise from above and below (loud radios; conversations; bangs and crashes seem to plague him). This is against a background of his career as a Librarian chiefly in Belfast and then more famously Hull. We get details of his work colleagues and his literary pursuits as he struggles to write the poems that would make him famous. Bitchy but heartfelt comments come thick and fast about Kingsley Amis and numerous other friends and acquaintances. His constant concern about his mother (widowed and alone for a long part of her life) and observations about the weather, radio programmes and his own reading habits provide a fascinating insight into this intensely private and personal poet.
His letters to Monica are often affectionate; self deprecating and full of plans for holidays, visits and observations about her own situation. There are limitations- the reader rarely gets a hint of Monicas perspective (though there are some useful footnotes that occasionally summarise crucial periods when she was upset about his affair with Maeve Brennan for example)There is also an overall feel for a lost period before the internet when letter writing was the only means of long and heartfelt communication- and this is indeed one of the last big collections of letters from a writer- there will be few if any from now on unless publishers are keen to print collections of tweets and emails. Larkin's enthusiasms (Katherine Mansfield; D H Lawrence; Gin and tonics; Jazz) are all mentioned and the feel for a Britain (particuarly in the letters spanning the 1950s) is tangible and touching. Larkin may come across as a curmudgeon but his sense of humour is also apparent in his gentle pastiches of letter writing styles and in his genuine affection and respect for Monica Jones. True; he refused to marry her and had relationships with other women but his relationship with Jones was truly a meeting of minds and crucial to them both. The days when one hung around by the post box for a real letter to pop through the door are long gone but this collection is truly touching, amusing, and makes even the mundanities of life sparkle again.
His letters to Monica are often affectionate; self deprecating and full of plans for holidays, visits and observations about her own situation. There are limitations- the reader rarely gets a hint of Monicas perspective (though there are some useful footnotes that occasionally summarise crucial periods when she was upset about his affair with Maeve Brennan for example)There is also an overall feel for a lost period before the internet when letter writing was the only means of long and heartfelt communication- and this is indeed one of the last big collections of letters from a writer- there will be few if any from now on unless publishers are keen to print collections of tweets and emails. Larkin's enthusiasms (Katherine Mansfield; D H Lawrence; Gin and tonics; Jazz) are all mentioned and the feel for a Britain (particuarly in the letters spanning the 1950s) is tangible and touching. Larkin may come across as a curmudgeon but his sense of humour is also apparent in his gentle pastiches of letter writing styles and in his genuine affection and respect for Monica Jones. True; he refused to marry her and had relationships with other women but his relationship with Jones was truly a meeting of minds and crucial to them both. The days when one hung around by the post box for a real letter to pop through the door are long gone but this collection is truly touching, amusing, and makes even the mundanities of life sparkle again.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I borrowed this from the library but shall buy it, a sentiment similar to many which Larkin expresses in a volume which is always fascinating on his reading, as he is on much else: he comes at everything from an unexpected angle, including his own existence.
Although there are the customary laments that he has let life slip through his fingers and that others have done as much in a year as he has in two decades, the volume is not so much absorbing for the trajectory of his relationship with Monica Jones but the way in which it allows him to riff, often surreally, on the passing show.
That vanished England in which people sat around and read the Sunday papers, and had to forage for obscure records.
The more I read the volume, the more I am convinced that if Larkin could have overcome his shyness, then there would have been queues for a self-deprecating act as a atand-up comedian. He often anticipates Woody Allen, and is galaxies away from lookalike Simon Fanshawe (why does anybody call him a comedian?).
Take, for example, Larkin's letter of 28 December 1950, in which he thanks Monica for a Christmas present: "you would have laughed at my expectations: as soon as I handled it, I thought: I know what this is - it's The ordeal of Paul Cezanne by John Rewald (Phoenix House, 30/-), & a slight pang of apprehension went through me, despite the quite genuine pleasure I should also have felt, at the thought of the ordeal of Philip Larkin that would come from reading it"... and so the paragraph goes on, as he unwraps what turns out to be The Wind in Willows, illustrated by Rackham, which he describes cogently.
All of it capped by "Not much of a haul this Christmas! A laundry bag (asked for), a 10/6 book token, a second-hand tie, & a pair of expanding cufflinks enamelled in blue with large 'P's in cursive script on them. That's all, that's all, that's all, that's all. Shan't get very fat on all that, eh? Not even a card from my sister: I am left with a powerful sense of having given rather than received, & the 4 above-mentioned articles. The family so far has not been so bad as I feared - plenty of time yet - but the utter comfortlessness of the spiritual slum my sister inhabits is not cheering."
What an encapsulation of Austerity England. Asking for a laundry bag!
He also draws a another link, not the famous line, between the Beatles and his own work. Seek that out, and much more.
I would have given it five stars, but the paper is not as good as the book deserves.
One mystery: here, as in the Selected Letters, many contemporaries and others receive a drubbing - there is some jealousy of Kingsley Amis - but somebody who emerges unscathed is Anthony Thwaite.... editor of both volumes.
Although there are the customary laments that he has let life slip through his fingers and that others have done as much in a year as he has in two decades, the volume is not so much absorbing for the trajectory of his relationship with Monica Jones but the way in which it allows him to riff, often surreally, on the passing show.
That vanished England in which people sat around and read the Sunday papers, and had to forage for obscure records.
The more I read the volume, the more I am convinced that if Larkin could have overcome his shyness, then there would have been queues for a self-deprecating act as a atand-up comedian. He often anticipates Woody Allen, and is galaxies away from lookalike Simon Fanshawe (why does anybody call him a comedian?).
Take, for example, Larkin's letter of 28 December 1950, in which he thanks Monica for a Christmas present: "you would have laughed at my expectations: as soon as I handled it, I thought: I know what this is - it's The ordeal of Paul Cezanne by John Rewald (Phoenix House, 30/-), & a slight pang of apprehension went through me, despite the quite genuine pleasure I should also have felt, at the thought of the ordeal of Philip Larkin that would come from reading it"... and so the paragraph goes on, as he unwraps what turns out to be The Wind in Willows, illustrated by Rackham, which he describes cogently.
All of it capped by "Not much of a haul this Christmas! A laundry bag (asked for), a 10/6 book token, a second-hand tie, & a pair of expanding cufflinks enamelled in blue with large 'P's in cursive script on them. That's all, that's all, that's all, that's all. Shan't get very fat on all that, eh? Not even a card from my sister: I am left with a powerful sense of having given rather than received, & the 4 above-mentioned articles. The family so far has not been so bad as I feared - plenty of time yet - but the utter comfortlessness of the spiritual slum my sister inhabits is not cheering."
What an encapsulation of Austerity England. Asking for a laundry bag!
He also draws a another link, not the famous line, between the Beatles and his own work. Seek that out, and much more.
I would have given it five stars, but the paper is not as good as the book deserves.
One mystery: here, as in the Selected Letters, many contemporaries and others receive a drubbing - there is some jealousy of Kingsley Amis - but somebody who emerges unscathed is Anthony Thwaite.... editor of both volumes.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The contents of this book are wonderful - five stars. In his own way Larkin is just as interesting and moving as any of the great poet/letter writers
As an object, this volume is disappointing - one star. Faber produce books of very varied quality. The best are very good, and include excellent recent productions of the letters of Ted Hughes, and the correspondence of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell (just to focus on hardback editions of poets' letters). Their worst are dreadful (eg their recent two volumes of the letters of T S Eliot - contrast the excellent first volume they published twenty or so years ago.) This edition of Larkin is one of their poorer productions. It feels light and shoddy. The pages - glued, of course, (they were sewn in both the Hughes and the Bishop/Lowell mentioned above) are already showing signs of falling out. The paper, smelling of cheap cardboard when you turn the pages, will, I'm sure, go brown quickly. The person who gave me the book for Christmas apologised, saying she thought about sending it back.
Faber needs to understand that if its customers just want content they will wait for the paperback, or, increasingly, go for an e-book. More and more customers will only buy a book, particularly a hardback, if it feels like a quality object. It's not a question of economics. I for one would be prepared to pay a couple of quid more for a hardback if the production standards are excellent; if the production standards are poor I often won't buy the book at all.
As an object, this volume is disappointing - one star. Faber produce books of very varied quality. The best are very good, and include excellent recent productions of the letters of Ted Hughes, and the correspondence of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell (just to focus on hardback editions of poets' letters). Their worst are dreadful (eg their recent two volumes of the letters of T S Eliot - contrast the excellent first volume they published twenty or so years ago.) This edition of Larkin is one of their poorer productions. It feels light and shoddy. The pages - glued, of course, (they were sewn in both the Hughes and the Bishop/Lowell mentioned above) are already showing signs of falling out. The paper, smelling of cheap cardboard when you turn the pages, will, I'm sure, go brown quickly. The person who gave me the book for Christmas apologised, saying she thought about sending it back.
Faber needs to understand that if its customers just want content they will wait for the paperback, or, increasingly, go for an e-book. More and more customers will only buy a book, particularly a hardback, if it feels like a quality object. It's not a question of economics. I for one would be prepared to pay a couple of quid more for a hardback if the production standards are excellent; if the production standards are poor I often won't buy the book at all.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Poetic Voyeurism
I doubt that Larkin ever expected these personal letters to the fascinating and long-suffering Monica Jones to be published. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bluecashmere.
Self's the man
These letters apparently came to light after the Selected Letters were published. Taken along with the latter, and the Andrew Motion biography, this makes for a rounded picture of... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Stephen Hudson
The Life Behind The Art
If you are wondering whether it is worth laying out your money on a one-sided correspondence by a poet who has plenty of other books and collections written about him then I can... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Eugene Onegin
The world according to Larkin
I have not been able to put this book down. I am an admirer of Larkin's work and, having read the Selected Letters, I was intrigued to discover this record of a more intimate side... Read more
Published 7 months ago by bucksstar
Almost an Autobiography
This marvellous book is the closest we'll ever get to an autobiography of Larkin, and is fitting consolation for those infamous diaries that he had burned, the contents of which... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Roger Keen
Monica's monikers
Dearest Bun, Dearest, My Dear, Dear Rabbit and occasionally - when Philip Larkin's fear of exchanging his oneness for twoness is at its lowest - Darling... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Potus and Flotus
Gives a deeper insight than previously available
We have been able to understand Larkin increasingly well through Andrew Motion's Life and the Selected Letters previously published. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Hal Westergaard
domesticate Larkin
This is a delightful book. Larkin is as provocative as in the letters to Kingsley Amis, but reveals a tender, thoughtful side to his nature. A wonderful, tormented man.
Published 16 months ago by brunty
Christmas present
Bought a a present for my son, thank God & Amazon it did arrive in time. Everything I expected from Amazon Letters give a fascinating insight into Larkin's everyday world. Read more
Published 16 months ago by RosiC
Larkin in love
A mind changing collection that challenges any preconceived notions about the misogynistic poet. These are disarmingly frank and revelatory. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Peter Kettle
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