Steve King
The Courteous Critic
Pieces of My Mind: Writings 1958-2002
By Frank Kermode
Allen Lane The Penguin Press 480pp £25 order from our bookshop
SIR FRANK KERMODE may well be the best-read man in Britain. In the scope and depth of his learning, he is probablv unrivalled. Enelish dons and readers of the London ~kew of Books ha; known this for decades. Thanks to books like Shakespeare's Language, whose combination of erudition and elegance made it a surprise bestseller in 2000, his reputation continues to spread among nonspecialist readers as he approaches his eighty-fourth birthday.
This hefty new collection showcases some of Kermode's more recherché scholarly work of the past forty years. The bulk of it is made up of extracts fiom hs books The Seme of an Ending, The Classic, The Genesis of Secrecy, Forms of Attention, and History and Ihlue. Thrown into the
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
'There is a difference between a doctor who writes medical treatises and a doctor who writes absurdist fiction. Do we want our heart surgeon to be an anti-realist?'
Joanna Kavenna peruses Iain Bamforth's 'Scattered Limbs: A Medical Dreambook'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/trust-me-philosopher
How did Uwe Johnson, the German writer who was friends with Hannah Arendt and Max Frisch, end up living out his days in the town of Sheerness, Kent?
https://literaryreview.co.uk/estuary-german
You only have a week left to take advantage of our February offer: a six-month subscription for only £19.99.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/literaryfebruary/