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THE CAMBRIDGE GUIDE TO ENGLISH LITERATURE
by Michael Stapleton
On the cover is a drawing of Samuel Johnson, the essayist, poet, biographer, lexicographer and all-around brilliant Englishman. And on the back is an illustration from the late 14th century manuscript of Pearl, an alliterative poem now reposing in the British Library. I had never heard of Pearl before, but Stapleton tells us that it is a lament for a dead baby girl, that the unnamed poet wanders in the garden where she lies buried, falls asleep and dreams that he meets her, grown to maturity. She reproaches her father for grieving too much and says that she is in a blessed state. The theme of spiritual crisis and reconciliation to loss is raised to the highest level of expression in one of the masterpieces of English medieval poetry.
As I made my way through this book, I kept marveling at how well Stapleton knew his subject. I looked him up and found that he is a native of Dungarvan, Ireland who lived between 1923 and 1994. An autodidact, he left home at age 12 to work as an assistant to a butcher—slicing, chopping and packing meat! Even while working at that bloody occupation, he read voraciously in the fields of literature and music. Stapleton became knowledgeable enough to be hired as a proofreader at Oxford University Press before moving up to higher editorial positions. Edith Sitwell, one of the people listed in his book, knew him and offered encouragement. In addition to this one, he wrote several books on ancient and Oriental mythology.
It is obviously an immense book and quite an accomplishment for Stapleton. His purpose, he said in the introduction, was to provide easy reference to the great treasure-house of poetry, fiction, drama and satire which is one of Western civilization’s lasting achievements. Stapleton gave himself a wide remit: anything written in this language by people in Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland), the United States, Canada, India, South Africa, the West Indies and even Nigeria.
Uitg. Book Club Associates, London
Groot formaat hardcover, 944 pagina's
Met illustraties
In uitstekende staat
