CONTRARIES
Essays
JOYCE CAROL OATES
Imbued with her own emotional
responses and enlivened by her
experience as a writer, Oates's
essays confront the contradictions to which readers respond emotionally in
Conrad'sNoJ–
tromo,
Wilde's
Tbr Pictur(
0/
Dorian Gray,
Dostoevsky's
Tbr POJJ(JJ(d,
Lawrence's
Womrn in
Lo"(,
Shakespeare's
King
uar,
Joyce's
U1!r'JrJ,
and English and Scottish traditional bal–
lads.
208
pp. ,
$15.00
JOHN DONNE
In the lirst comprehensive study
in a decade of Donne and his art,
Carey presents a picture of the
poet against the background of
Renaissance skepticism and
Life, Mind, and
Art
JOHN CAREY
science. Beginning with an account of his life, the book exam–
ines in detail the whole scope of his work - his poetry, ser–
mons, letters, spiritual and controversial works, and such
highly personal documents as the treatise on suicide - to lay
bare the shaping principles of Donne's imagination.
A Compass for Recent
American and British
JJ'n~"'~'-
ROBERTA BERKE
In her survey of poetry from
1950
to the
present" Berke gives a lively and clear
account of the kinds of poetry being written
today, with close-up views of poems that
have become modern classics.
It
is hearten–
ing to have a critic of contemporary verse
who speaks out boldly and aims at the com–
mon reader rather than at the special–
ist. .. Stimulating and controversial."–
Louis Simpson . " A very thorough, clear–
headed, and useful introduction ."–
A.
Alvarez
222
pp.,
$14.95
336
pp.,
$19.95
WORDS FAIL ME
PHILIP HOWARD
Who lirst conceived the notion that Che–
shire cats smile (a century before Lewis
Carroll)? Where did we 'get the idea that
jumbo, as in jumbo-jet, meant elephant? In
his characteristically entertaining way,
Howard continues his exploration of the
state of the language, investigating the coin–
ing of new words, the fading away of old
ones, and how words have changed their
meanings.
250
pp.,
$13,95
AI YOllr
hooJ:.lf~
or
dind
yo"r
~lxck
to:
OXFORD
University Press
-
~
_Box
900-81-063 200
Madison Avenue.
N.Y.. N.Y.
10016___
