John Carey Reihenfolge der Bücher

A collection of John Carey's greatest, wisest, and wittiest reviews-amassed over a lifetime of writing

John Carey's poetry showcases a sharp wit and a mastery of language, adeptly exposing absurdity, hypocrisy, and institutional cruelty. While his satirical works dominate, this collection also features poignant lyrical and personal poems that resonate deeply. At its core, Carey's writing reflects a humanist's longing for a better world, balancing humor with a profound critique of societal flaws.

A vital, engaging, and hugely enjoyable guide to poetry, from ancient times to the present, by one of our greatest champions of literature--selected as the literature book of the year by the London Times “[A] fizzing, exhilarating book.”—Sebastian Faulks, Sunday Times, London“Delightful.’”— New York Times Book Review What is poetry? If music is sound organized in a particular way, poetry is a way of organizing language. It is language made special so that it will be remembered and valued. It does not always work—over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten. But this Little History is about some that have not. John Carey tells the stories behind the world’s greatest poems, from the oldest surviving one written nearly four thousand years ago to those being written today. Carey looks at poets whose works shape our views of the world, such as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Whitman, and Yeats. He also looks at more recent poets, like Derek Walcott, Marianne Moore, and Maya Angelou, who have started to question what makes a poem “great” in the first place. For readers both young and old, this little history shines a light for readers on the richness of the world’s poems—and the elusive quality that makes them all the more enticing.

A wonderfully readable anthology of our greatest poetry, chosen by the author of A Little History of Poetry

Studie „Intelektuálové a masy“ podrobuje kritice elitářské teze některých nejznámějších osobností britské literární scény konce 19. a počátku 20. století. Na citacích z jejich děl či soukromých písemností dokládá úzkost a averzi, kterou mezi intelektuály vzbuzovaly společenské změny spojené s prudkým růstem počtu obyvatel v 19. století: urbanizace a rozvoj předměstské zástavby spojený s devastací přírody a také všeobecné rozšíření gramotnosti a následný vzestup masové kultury, jehož průvodními jevy byly populární žurnalistika, masová turistika či reklama. Kniha zkoumá způsoby, jimiž modernističtí i jiní autoři reagovali na tuto kulturní „vzpouru davů“, ať už to byla výlučnost a artistnost jejich děl, která je odsouvala z dosahu „nedovzdělaných“ mas, nebo sociálně utopické projekty, jež někteří z nich vytvářeli v reakci na fenomén přelidnění a masovosti, a ukazuje, jak některé z těchto idejí bezděky předznamenávají rétoriku Hitlerovy knihy Mein Kampf.

A vital, engaging, and hugely enjoyable guide to poetry, from ancient times to the present, by one of our greatest champions of literature The Times and Sunday Times, Best Books of 2020 “[A] fizzing, exhilarating book.”—Sebastian Faulks, Sunday Times What is poetry? If music is sound organized in a particular way, poetry is a way of organizing language. It is language made special so that it will be remembered and valued. It does not always work—over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten. But this Little History is about some that have not. John Carey tells the stories behind the world’s greatest poems, from the oldest surviving one written nearly four thousand years ago to those being written today. Carey looks at poets whose works shape our views of the world, such as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Whitman, and Yeats. He also looks at more recent poets, like Derek Walcott, Marianne Moore, and Maya Angelou, who have started to question what makes a poem “great” in the first place. For readers both young and old, this little history shines a light for readers on the richness of the world’s poems—and the elusive quality that makes them all the more enticing.

In 1954 William Golding was 43 years old and a nobody. He had been demobbed from the navy at the end of World War Two and returned to his pre-war job teaching English at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury. Always hard up, he lived in what he called a “lousy council flat” with his wife, Ann, and their two young children. In 1952 he finished the novel that was to become Lord of the Flies, and sent it to five publishers and a literary agency. They all rejected it. The sixth publisher he tried was Faber and Faber, and the professional reader wrote her opinion on the typescript: “Time the Future. Absurd & uninteresting fantasy about the explosion of an atom bomb on the Colonies. A group of children who land in jungle country near New Guinea. Rubbish & dull.” But the novel was rescued from the reject pile by a new recruit to Faber, and when it was finally published in September 1954 the poet Stevie Smith greeted it as “this beautiful and desperate book”. In the early 1960s cultural commentators noted that Lord of the Flies was replacing Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye as the bible of the American adolescent. Its anti-war tenor helped to ensure its profound impact on the young at a time when the Cold War was hotting up. Since then, his masterpiece has established itself as a modern classic. In this short, compelling guide, John Carey tells us how and why.

After its publication in 1667, John Milton's Paradise Lost was celebrated throughout Europe as a supreme achievement of the human spirit.

John Carey's hugely acclaimed memoir, in which he reflects on a life immersed in literature.

Do the arts make us better people? Are they a sign of civilization? Why should 'high' are be thought higher than 'low'? Are judgements about art anything more than personal opinions? What are works of art anyway - do they belong to some special, sacred category? Can the brain-scientists who are investigating the arts tell us anything useful about them? In the first part of his new book John Carey returns startling answers to these and related questions. In the second part he makes out a self-confessedly personal and subjective case for the superiority of literature to all other arts.