With this coruscating work, James, swimming through cultural debris both high and low, dispenses with his reputation as a perennial court jester, establishing himself as a poet of enduring power and resonance.
from "Angels Over Elsinore"
How many angels knew who Hamlet was
When they were summoned by Horatio?
They probably showed up only because
The roster said it was their turn to go.
Another day, another Dane. Too bad,
But while they sang their well-rehearsed lament
They noticed...
With this coruscating work, James, swimming through cultural debris both high and low, dispenses with his reputation as a perennial court jester, esta...
Finally in paperback after six hardcover printings, this international bestseller is an encyclopedic A-Z masterpiece the perfect introduction to the very core of Western humanism. Clive James rescues, or occasionally destroys, the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the twentieth century. Soaring to Montaigne-like heights, Cultural Amnesia is precisely the book to burnish these memories of a Western civilization that James fears is nearly lost."
Finally in paperback after six hardcover printings, this international bestseller is an encyclopedic A-Z masterpiece the perfect introduction to the v...
Opal Sunset marks the exuberant introduction of Clive James's poetry to an American audience. Praised after the publication ofCultural Amnesia as one of the finest prose stylists of his generation, Clive James is now, with the publication of this collection, being granted recognition as the poet he has always been. For much of his long career it was hard to realize that James's gift for poetry underlay his achievements in other fields. First as a television critic on Fleet Street, and later as a television personality in his own right, he achieved such fame for writing the...
Opal Sunset marks the exuberant introduction of Clive James's poetry to an American audience. Praised after the publication ofCultural Am...
An esteemed literary critic shares his final musings on books, his children, and his own impending death
In 2010, Clive James was diagnosed with terminal leukemia. Deciding that "if you don't know the exact moment when the lights will go out, you might as well read until they do," James moved his library to his house in Cambridge, where he would "live, read, and perhaps even write." James is the award-winning author of dozens of works of literary criticism, poetry, and history, and this volume contains his reflections on what may well be his last reading list. A look at...
An esteemed literary critic shares his final musings on books, his children, and his own impending death
The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and Clive James s translation decades in the making gives us the entire epic as a single, coherent, and compulsively readable lyric poem. For the first time ever in an English translation, James makes the bold choice of switching from the terza rima composition of the original Italian a measure that strains in English to the quatrain. The result is rhymed English stanzas that convey the music of Dante s triple rhymes (Edward Mendelson). James s translation reproduces the same wonderful momentum of the original Italian that...
The Divine Comedy is the precursor of modern literature, and Clive James s translation decades in the making gives us the entire epic as a si...
Of the three sections of Dante s Divine Comedy, the first section, Inferno, has always been the most popular. The medieval equivalent of a thriller, Inferno features Dante and his faithful guide Virgil as they traverse the complex geography of Hell and confront many hair-raising threats before reaching the deep chamber where Satan resides. Now, in this dazzling translation, described as a remarkable achievment by Stephen Greenblatt, Clive James communicates not just the transcendent poetry of Dante s language but also the excitement and terror of his journey through the underworld. Instead of...
Of the three sections of Dante s Divine Comedy, the first section, Inferno, has always been the most popular. The medieval equivalent of a thriller, I...
Clive James is one of our finest critics and best-beloved cultural voices. He is also a prize-winning poet. Since he was first enthralled by the mysterious power of poetry, he has been a dedicated student. In fact, for him, poetry has been nothing less than the occupation of his lifetime, and in this book he presents a distillation of all he s learned about the art form that matters to him most.
With his customary wit, delightfully lucid prose style and wide-ranging knowledge, Clive James explains the difference between the innocuous stuff so prevalent today and a real poem: the latter...
Clive James is one of our finest critics and best-beloved cultural voices. He is also a prize-winning poet. Since he was first enthralled by the my...
In this new collection of "technically and emotionally heart-stopping poems" (Spectator) including "Japanese Maple," which was published in The New Yorker to great acclaim Clive James looks back over an extraordinarily rich life with a clear-eyed and unflinching honesty. There are regrets but no trace of self-pity in these verses, which for all their grappling with death and his current illness are primarily a celebration of what is treasurable and memorable in our time here.
Again and again, James reminds us that he is not only a poet of effortless wit and lyric...
In this new collection of "technically and emotionally heart-stopping poems" (Spectator) including "Japanese Maple," which was published i...
