Selected Poems
Philip Larkin, Martin Amis (ed.)
Selected Poems
For the first time, Faber publish a selection from the poetry of Philip Larkin. Drawing on Larkin's four collections and on his uncollected poems. Chosen by Martin Amis. 'Many poets make us smile; how many poets make us laugh - or, in that curious phrase, "laugh out loud" (as if there's another way of doing it)? Who else uses an essentially conversational idiom to achieve such a variety of emotional effects? Who else takes us, and takes us so often, from sunlit levity to mellifluous gloom?... Larkin, often, is more than memorable: he is instantly unforgettable.' - Martin Amis
4.1 out of 5 based on 4 reviews
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Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
Poetry |
| Format |
Hardcover |
| Pages |
128 |
| RRP |
£14.99 |
| Date of Publication |
September 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-0571258109 |
| Publisher |
Faber and Faber |
| |
For the first time, Faber publish a selection from the poetry of Philip Larkin. Drawing on Larkin's four collections and on his uncollected poems. Chosen by Martin Amis. 'Many poets make us smile; how many poets make us laugh - or, in that curious phrase, "laugh out loud" (as if there's another way of doing it)? Who else uses an essentially conversational idiom to achieve such a variety of emotional effects? Who else takes us, and takes us so often, from sunlit levity to mellifluous gloom?... Larkin, often, is more than memorable: he is instantly unforgettable.' - Martin Amis
Read The Omnivore's roundup for LETTERS TO MONICA by Philip Larkin.
Martin Amis on Philip Larkin's women — The Guardian
Reviews
The Daily Telegraph
Mark Sanderson
"Martin Amis’s generous selection of Philip Larkin’s “instantly unforgettable” Poems is worth buying simply for his brilliant introduction. "
19/09/2011
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The Evening Standard
David Sexton
"This is a handsomely produced book, highly desirable, if what you want is Larkin selected."
08/09/2011
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The Guardian
Sean O'Brien
"The poems are always worth reading, and worth re-reading in this arrangement, but what carries the volume beyond bookmanship is Amis's introduction ... the real interest of Amis's essay lies in its handling of two vexatious and intimately connected subjects, ideology and biography ... We see the novelist and maybe (who knows?) the misogynist at work in Amis's depiction of Larkin amid a constellation of women ..."
16/09/2011
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The Spectator
James Booth
"It is a pity that what is bound to become the standard introduction to this great poet should be so refracted through his relationship with a man who never even visited the city in which Larkin spent the second half of his life. In an implicit contrast with his ‘bohemian’, metropolitan father, Martin Amis tells us that Larkin was ‘a nine-to-five librarian, who lived for 30 years in a northern city that smelled of fish.’ "
15/10/2011
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