Stephen Fender
The Plain Man’s Pound
The Poetic Achievements of Ezra Pound
By Michael Alexander
Faber 247pp £7.95
Michael Alexander offers ‘an introductory critical survey of Pound’s verse as a whole’. After books by Kenner, Davie, Espey, Dekker, Stock and many others, do we still need such a thing? American academics have become divided unevenly into the Pound industry (producing some fascinating work on sources and contexts) and the majority who have put the poet out of mind – or at least out of the syllabus. The English seem forever to be writing introductions. Do they feel guilty of having slighted the Cantos, ever since Leavis dismissed them as ‘Mr Pound’s The Ring and the Book’? Or are they uneasy at never having absorbed the modernist movement, born on their native soil at the beginning of this country?
Though the plain man’s guide can be a most boring pose, it is not without attraction when it is produced by an enthusiastic, intelligent non-specialist in a genuine spirit of enquiry. Mr Alexander is such an author. He writes beautifully. His critical perception is almost flawless – in fact (to
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
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk