Review (PDF)

The Dyer's Hand And Other Essays

In this volume, W. H. Auden assembled, edited, and arranged the best of his prose writing, including the famous lectures he delivered as Oxford Professor of Poetry.  The result is less a formal collection of essays than an extended and linked series of observations--on poetry, art, and the observation of life in general.  The Dyer's Hand is a surprisingly personal, intimate view of the author's mind, whose central focus is poetry--Shakespearean poetry in particular--but whose province is the author's whole experience of the twentieth century.

Paperback: 544 pages

Publisher: Vintage Books/Random House; 1st edition (December 1989)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0679724842

ISBN-13: 978-0679724841

Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches

Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #346,806 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #256 in Books > Literature & Fiction > British & Irish > Literature #1064 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Regional & Cultural > United States #1225 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > European

This collection of essays dealing with every type of literature -- poetry, plays, operas, comedies, tragedies -- and (almost) every essay is superb. In practically every essay Auden says things that make you slap your thigh and say, "dammit, so THAT'S why I feel like that about this play [or poem, or critic, or character in a play, etc.]". The main reason is that Auden has a superb understanding of the all-important, yet subtle, differences between different concepts, characters, types of literature, and so on.To give some examples, in one essay Auden defines perfectly the difference between PRETENDING to be in love, WISHING to be in love, THINKING one is in love, and actually being in love. In another, the difference between a comedy which makes us accept our imperfection, and a satire that makes us wish to change them. In yet another, the difference between two Shakespearian outsiders -- the Jewish Shylock and the Moore, Othello, and how their different type of "outsiderness" (Shylock, the lender, is despised but also despises the Italians, while Othello thinks his military prowess made him acceptable, which is not so); the difference between the "I" and the "self"; between a "bore" and "a boring" person -- and show why they matter.In addition to making fine distinction, Auden is also extremely perceptive in other ways. E.g., Auden hits right on the head the problem with most literary theory written by poets: namely, that it amounts to "read me, don't read the other fellow". He notes there are numerous ways to write good poetry, and his own expertise is by no means the only way.

The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays A Dyer's Garden Essays That Will Get You into Medical School (Essays That Will Get You Into...Series) [Second Edition] (Barron's Essays That Will Get You Into Medical School) Hand-in-Hand: Ceramics, Mosaics, Tapestries, and Wood Carvings by the California Mid-Century Designers Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman James Baldwin : Collected Essays : Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays (Library of America) Caillou: No More Diapers (Hand in Hand) Knife Fighting, Knife Throwing for Combat (Special Forces/Ranger-Udt/Seal Hand-To-Hand Combat/Special W) The games of drawing room hockey, tether ball, hand tennis, garden hockey, volley ball, basket goal, lawn hockey, wicket polo, hand polo, golf croquet, clock golf, laws of badminton Essays That Worked for Law Schools: 40 Essays from Successful Applications to the Nation's Top Law Schools Essays That Will Get You into Medical School (Essays That Will Get You Into... Series) 4th Edition by Dowhan, Chris, Kaufman, Dan, Dowhan, Adrienne (2014) Paperback 240 Writing Topics with Sample Essays: How to Write Essays (120 Writing Topics) Landmark Essays on Archival Research (Landmark Essays Series) Hand Printing from Nature: Create Unique Prints for Fabric, Paper, and Other Surfaces Using Natural and Found Materials Speech and Phenomena: And Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy) A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers and Other Essays Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp and Other Essays from Might Magazine Where Is Your Body?: And Other Essays on Race, Gender, and the Law The Monsters and the Critics: And Other Essays. J.R.R. Tolkien Emma Goldman on Anarchism (and other Essays) The moral obligation to be intelligent, and other essays