Common Reading: Critics, Historians, Publics

(In this series of penetrating and attractively readable e...)

In this series of penetrating and attractively readable essays, Stefan Collini explores aspects of the literary and intellectual culture of Britain from the early twentieth century to the present. Collini focuses on critics and historians who wrote for a non-specialist readership, and on the periodicals and other genres through which they attempted to reach that readership. Among the critics discussed are Cyril Connolly, V.S. Pritchett, Aldous Huxley, Rebecca West, Edmund Wilson, and George Orwell, while the historians include A.L. Rowse, Arthur Bryant, E.H. Carr, and E.P. Thompson. There are also essays on wider themes such as the fate of 'general' periodicals, the history of reading, the role of criticism, changing conceptions of 'culture', the limitations of biography, and the functions of universities. Explicitly addressed to 'the non-specialist reader', these essays make some of the fruits of detailed scholarly research in various fields available to a wider audience in a succinct and elegant manner. Stefan Collini has been acclaimed as one of the most brilliant essayists of our time, and this collection shows him at his subtle, perceptive, and trenchant best. The book will appeal to (and delight) readers interested in literature, history, and contemporary cultural debate.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199296782/?tag=2022091-20

Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain by Stefan Collini (2007-09-06)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MS1BZNM/?tag=2022091-20

English Pasts : Essays in History And Culture by Stefan Collini (1999-05-27)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K0UVOHC/?tag=2022091-20

Common Reading: Critics, Historians, Publics

(In this series of penetrating and attractively readable e...)

In this series of penetrating and attractively readable essays, Stefan Collini explores aspects of the literary and intellectual culture of Britain from the early twentieth century to the present. Collini focuses on critics and historians who wrote for a non-specialist readership, and on the periodicals and other genres through which they attempted to reach that readership. Among the critics discussed are Cyril Connolly, V.S. Pritchett, Aldous Huxley, Rebecca West, Edmund Wilson, and George Orwell, while the historians include A.L. Rowse, Arthur Bryant, E.H. Carr, and E.P. Thompson. There are also essays on wider themes such as the fate of 'general' periodicals, the history of reading, the role of criticism, changing conceptions of 'culture', the limitations of biography, and the functions of universities. Explicitly addressed to 'the non-specialist reader', these essays make some of the fruits of detailed scholarly research in various fields available to a wider audience in a succinct and elegant manner. Stefan Collini has been acclaimed as one of the most brilliant essayists of our time, and this collection shows him at his subtle, perceptive, and trenchant best. The book will appeal to (and delight) readers interested in literature, history, and contemporary cultural debate.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PM7CES/?tag=2022091-20

Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain

(A richly textured work of history and a powerful contribu...)

A richly textured work of history and a powerful contribution to contemporary cultural debate, Absent Minds provides the first full-length account of "he question of intellectuals" n twentieth-century Britain--have such figures ever existed, have they always been more prominent or influential elsewhere, and are they on the point of becoming extinct today? Recovering neglected or misunderstood traditions of reflection and debate from the late nineteenth century through to the present, Stefan Collini challenges the familiar cliché that there are no "real" intellectuals in Britain. The book offers a persuasive analysis of the concept of 'the intellectual' and an extensive comparative account of how this question has been seen in the USA, France, and elsewhere in Europe. There are detailed discussions of influential or revealing figures such as Julien Benda, T. S. Eliot, George Orwell, and Edward Said, as well as trenchant critiques of current assumptions about the impact of specialization and celebrity. Throughout, attention is paid to the multiple senses of the term "intellectuals" and to the great diversity of relevant genres and media through which they have communicated their ideas, from pamphlets and periodical essays to public lectures and radio talks. Elegantly written and rigorously argued, Absent Minds is a major, long-awaited work by a leading intellectual historian and cultural commentator, ranging across the conventional divides between academic disciplines and combining insightful portraits of individuals with sharp-edged cultural analysis.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199216657/?tag=2022091-20

Common Reading: Critics, Historians, Publics by Stefan Collini (2009-10-25)

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Matthew Arnold: A Critical Portrait by Stefan Collini (2008-04-15)

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English Pasts: Essays in History and Culture

(This is an accessible collection of essays by a leading h...)

This is an accessible collection of essays by a leading historian and critic. Subjects include the idea of "the national past," the historian as social critic, the claims of Cultural Studies, the nature of academic "research," the function of the literary biography, and the lives and ideas of such figures as Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, R. H. Tawney, Isaiah Berlin, Raymond Williams, and Richard Hoggart.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198207808/?tag=2022091-20

Matthew Arnold: A Critical Portrait

(Matthew Arnold (1822-88), the leading man-of-letters of t...)

Matthew Arnold (1822-88), the leading man-of-letters of the Victorian age, has been the decisive influence on modern thinking about literature and criticism and his work has become an inescapable cultural reference point today. In this stylish and entertaining book Stefan Collini examines the whole range of Arnold's literary, social, and religious criticism as well as his poetry, placing them in the context of the major intellectual controversies of the nineteenth century. By attending to the distinctive power of Arnold's writing to charm, tease, persuade, and irritate, the book provides a brilliant characterization of the tone and temper of his mind. This edition includes a substantial Afterword which reflects on Arnold's continuing polemical significance and his role in contemporary cultural debate.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199541884/?tag=2022091-20