Daily Express
A massive indispensable book ... The Power of Delight is a testament to his genius
Sunday Times
Every line demonstrates the fruits of serious reading, but Bayley's scholarship reads not dustily but lustily
Daily Express
A massive indispensable book ... The Power of Delight is a testament to Bayley's genius
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Margaret Drabble, New Statesman
It is a pleasure to follow the movement of Bayley's discursive mind
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Beginning his career at Oxford in the 1950s, the ever-incisive John Bayley has been one of the great bulwarks - in the tradition of William Hazlitt and Edmund Wilson - of twentieth-century world literature. His distinctive sensibility has transformed tastes and theories. Here, in The Power of Delight, a volume that has been assembled with the assistance of New Yorker editor Leo Carey, we see at last the full range of Bayley's life and work, divided into eight sections that include 'English Literature,' 'Russian Novels,' and 'American Poetry.' A wide-ranging guide to essential reading, The Power of Delight examines classics, neglected gems and masterpieces of our time - from Jane Austen to Milan Kundera, Leo Tolstoy to John Ashbery, and from Robert Lowell's messy persona to George Orwell's self-canonization.
About the Author
John Bayley is the author of Alice, The Queer Captain, George's Lair and The Red Hat, as well as the best-selling memoirs, Iris, Iris and the Friends and Widower's House - all published by Duckworth. He was Wharton Professor of English at the University of Oxford and is a fellow of St Catherine's College.
