John Bayley
A Pleasant Collection of Bits and Pieces
The New Oxford Book of English Prose
By John Gross (ed)
Oxford University Press 1104pp £25 order from our bookshop
The Oxford Book of English Prose, edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch, appeared in November 1925, exactly twenty-five years after The Oxford Book of English Verse. The immense success of the latter, although it was far from being the first or the best of verse anthologies, explains why the editor was already Sir Arthur. Deservedly, no doubt. And the follow-up was equally successful. Since then there have been Oxford Books of practically everything, from Ireland to hamsters. But was the idea of a prose anthology really such a good one? Any poem is complete in itself; no prose extract can be.
The OUP thought it a good idea, or at least a financially sound one, and their new editor, John Gross, has tried valiantly to justify both the repeat and the original policy. In his admirable Introduction, he points out that the worthy scholastic intention, which must have been in Q’s
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
The first holiday camps had an 'ethos of muscular health as a marker of social respectability, and were alcohol-free. How different from our modern Costa Brava – not to mention the innumerable other coasts around the world now changed forever'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/from-mont-blanc-to-magaluf
'The authorities are able to detain individuals in solitary confinement for up to six months at a secret location', which 'increases the risk to the prisoner of torture'.
@lucyjpop looks at two cases of China's brutal crackdown on free expression.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/xu-zhiyong-thupten-lodoe
'"The Last Colony" is, among other things, part of the campaign to shift the British position through political pressure. As with all good propaganda, Sands’s case is based in truth, if not the whole of it.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/empire-strikes-back