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A Certain World: A Commonplace Book
A Certain World
438 pages, Hardcover
First published June 26, 1970
12 people are currently reading
425 people want to read
About the author
W.H. Auden
617 books1,062 followersPoems, published in such collections as
Look, Stranger!
(1936) and
The Shield of Achilles
(1955), established importance of British-American writer and critic Wystan Hugh Auden in 20th-century literature.
In and near Birmingham, he developed in a professional middle-class family. He attended English independent schools and studied at Christ church, Oxford. From 1927, Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship despite briefer but more intense relations with other men. Auden passed a few months in Berlin in 1928 and 1929.
He then spent five years from 1930 to 1935, teaching in English schools and then traveled to Iceland and China for books about his journeys. People noted stylistic and technical achievement, engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and variety in tone, form and content. He came to wide attention at the age of 23 years in 1930 with his first book, Poems ; The Orators followed in 1932.
Three plays in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood in 1935 to 1938 built his reputation in a left-wing politics.
People best know this Anglo for love such as "Funeral Blues," for political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939," for culture and psychology, such as The Age of Anxiety , and for religion, such as For the Time Being and "Horae Canonicae." In 1939, partly to escape a liberal reputation, Auden moved to the United States. Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship to 1939. In 1939, Auden fell in lust with Chester Kallman and regarded their relation as a marriage.
From 1941, Auden taught in universities. This relationship ended in 1941, when Chester Kallman refused to accept the faithful relation that Auden demanded, but the two maintained their friendship.
Auden taught in universities through 1945. His work, including the long For the Time Being and The Sea and the Mirror , in the 1940s focused on religious themes. He attained citizenship in 1946.
The title of his long The Age of Anxiety , a popular phrase, described the modern era; it won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. From 1947, he wintered in New York and summered in Ischia. From 1947, Auden and Chester Kallman lived in the same house or apartment in a non-sexual relation and often collaborated on opera libretti, such as The Rake's Progress for music of Igor Stravinsky until death of Auden.
Occasional visiting professorships followed in the 1950s. From 1956, he served as professor at Oxford. He wintered in New York and summered in Ischia through 1957. From 1958, he wintered usually in New York and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria.
He served as professor at Oxford to 1961; his popular lectures with students and faculty served as the basis of his prose The Dyer's Hand in 1962.
Auden, a prolific prose essayist, reviewed political, psychological and religious subjects, and worked at various times on documentary films, plays, and other forms of performance. Throughout his controversial and influential career, views on his work ranged from sharply dismissive, treating him as a lesser follower of William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot, to strongly affirmative, as claim of Joseph Brodsky of his "greatest mind of the twentieth century."
He wintered in Oxford in 1972/1973 and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria, until the end of his life.
After his death, films, broadcasts, and popular media enabled people to know and ton note much more widely "Funeral Blues," "Musée des Beaux Arts," "Refugee Blues," "The Unknown Citizen," and "September 1, 1939," t
In and near Birmingham, he developed in a professional middle-class family. He attended English independent schools and studied at Christ church, Oxford. From 1927, Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship despite briefer but more intense relations with other men. Auden passed a few months in Berlin in 1928 and 1929.
He then spent five years from 1930 to 1935, teaching in English schools and then traveled to Iceland and China for books about his journeys. People noted stylistic and technical achievement, engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and variety in tone, form and content. He came to wide attention at the age of 23 years in 1930 with his first book, Poems ; The Orators followed in 1932.
Three plays in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood in 1935 to 1938 built his reputation in a left-wing politics.
People best know this Anglo for love such as "Funeral Blues," for political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939," for culture and psychology, such as The Age of Anxiety , and for religion, such as For the Time Being and "Horae Canonicae." In 1939, partly to escape a liberal reputation, Auden moved to the United States. Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship to 1939. In 1939, Auden fell in lust with Chester Kallman and regarded their relation as a marriage.
From 1941, Auden taught in universities. This relationship ended in 1941, when Chester Kallman refused to accept the faithful relation that Auden demanded, but the two maintained their friendship.
Auden taught in universities through 1945. His work, including the long For the Time Being and The Sea and the Mirror , in the 1940s focused on religious themes. He attained citizenship in 1946.
The title of his long The Age of Anxiety , a popular phrase, described the modern era; it won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. From 1947, he wintered in New York and summered in Ischia. From 1947, Auden and Chester Kallman lived in the same house or apartment in a non-sexual relation and often collaborated on opera libretti, such as The Rake's Progress for music of Igor Stravinsky until death of Auden.
Occasional visiting professorships followed in the 1950s. From 1956, he served as professor at Oxford. He wintered in New York and summered in Ischia through 1957. From 1958, he wintered usually in New York and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria.
He served as professor at Oxford to 1961; his popular lectures with students and faculty served as the basis of his prose The Dyer's Hand in 1962.
Auden, a prolific prose essayist, reviewed political, psychological and religious subjects, and worked at various times on documentary films, plays, and other forms of performance. Throughout his controversial and influential career, views on his work ranged from sharply dismissive, treating him as a lesser follower of William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot, to strongly affirmative, as claim of Joseph Brodsky of his "greatest mind of the twentieth century."
He wintered in Oxford in 1972/1973 and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria, until the end of his life.
After his death, films, broadcasts, and popular media enabled people to know and ton note much more widely "Funeral Blues," "Musée des Beaux Arts," "Refugee Blues," "The Unknown Citizen," and "September 1, 1939," t
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 9, 2025
W.H. Auden was an Arcadian.
Let me explain...
He saw the world divided into two camps, sorta like Augustine with his City of Men and his City of God.
But - here wily old Wystan added a twist - the City of Men is made up of Utopians, and the City of God is inhabited by Arcadians!
The Arcadians are dreamers.
They feel real love and compassion for friends and family.
They love ALL stories and books.
They can quite comfortably live in their own world, thank you very much, but they cherish companionship and good humour.
And maybe they’re mainly Aspies like Auden probably was - though he seems to have disciplined himself to be high-functioning on the Autism Spectrum (HFA).
(Arcadian books include those by the ancient writers Virgil and Longus and, in Elizabethan times, Sir Philip Sidney...)
Arcadians, in other words, are remarkably like Hobbits. It’s no coincidence that J.R.R. Tolkien was one of Auden’s friends and mentors.
And you already know enough about Utopians, I think!
But Auden loved to spend hours lying on the floor of his home on Audenstrasse in Kirchstetten, Austria (the town where he is buried), surrounded by newspapers, open books, and towering piles of tomes - tottering stacks just like C.S. Lewis had in his house.
Auden would just lie underneath the piles of his humongous nomadic collection, writing poetry, or putting together new books just like this...
A commonplace book.
A book with myriad segments, all weird and wonderful - about every subject under the sun.
A sage, wacky and down-to-earth book, culled from a wildly eclectic spectrum of sources.
I should know - it was one of my most treasured possessions - until I gave it away in the Christmas of 2017.
It was my last Christmas present to a good friend I had known since way back in 1965 - and also my quiet roommate at university and fellow English major.
He died of cancer 2 months later, God rest his gentle soul.
So it goes...
***
But back, more wistfully now, to Auden:
If you CAN find a copy of this wonderful book, SNAP it up!
It is Auden at his loosest and most carelessly open, ambling ease.
REALLY, GRACELESSLY at home with himself and his endless stacks of books.
Arcadia, anyone?
Et in Arcadia ego!
Let me explain...
He saw the world divided into two camps, sorta like Augustine with his City of Men and his City of God.
But - here wily old Wystan added a twist - the City of Men is made up of Utopians, and the City of God is inhabited by Arcadians!
The Arcadians are dreamers.
They feel real love and compassion for friends and family.
They love ALL stories and books.
They can quite comfortably live in their own world, thank you very much, but they cherish companionship and good humour.
And maybe they’re mainly Aspies like Auden probably was - though he seems to have disciplined himself to be high-functioning on the Autism Spectrum (HFA).
(Arcadian books include those by the ancient writers Virgil and Longus and, in Elizabethan times, Sir Philip Sidney...)
Arcadians, in other words, are remarkably like Hobbits. It’s no coincidence that J.R.R. Tolkien was one of Auden’s friends and mentors.
And you already know enough about Utopians, I think!
But Auden loved to spend hours lying on the floor of his home on Audenstrasse in Kirchstetten, Austria (the town where he is buried), surrounded by newspapers, open books, and towering piles of tomes - tottering stacks just like C.S. Lewis had in his house.
Auden would just lie underneath the piles of his humongous nomadic collection, writing poetry, or putting together new books just like this...
A commonplace book.
A book with myriad segments, all weird and wonderful - about every subject under the sun.
A sage, wacky and down-to-earth book, culled from a wildly eclectic spectrum of sources.
I should know - it was one of my most treasured possessions - until I gave it away in the Christmas of 2017.
It was my last Christmas present to a good friend I had known since way back in 1965 - and also my quiet roommate at university and fellow English major.
He died of cancer 2 months later, God rest his gentle soul.
So it goes...
***
But back, more wistfully now, to Auden:
If you CAN find a copy of this wonderful book, SNAP it up!
It is Auden at his loosest and most carelessly open, ambling ease.
REALLY, GRACELESSLY at home with himself and his endless stacks of books.
Arcadia, anyone?
Et in Arcadia ego!
March 27, 2015
Lots of great content, but also lots of outdated things. Overall fascinating, however.
October 15, 2020
I have owned this book since it was published first in 1970. It lives in the box by my chair for often I find myself looking up what Auden says about this or that - maybe a line of thought deflected into another direction. The book itself is getting tatty now and has lost its cover. There is no end date.
May 5, 2008
an anthology of quotes & excerpts from favorite books most marvellous
September 13, 2017
interesting | eclectic | evocative
June 6, 2009
This "commonplace book," as such collections of favorite
quotations and personal comments are called, is arranged alphabetically by categories, some quite quirky, devised by Auden. "Dogs" and "Eating" get many pages, as does "Lead Mine, Visit To A." whereas "Bores" get just a half page but
that includes "What is more enchanting than the voices of
young people when you can't hear what they say?" (credited
to one L. P. Smith. Good enough for uncommitted browsing.
quotations and personal comments are called, is arranged alphabetically by categories, some quite quirky, devised by Auden. "Dogs" and "Eating" get many pages, as does "Lead Mine, Visit To A." whereas "Bores" get just a half page but
that includes "What is more enchanting than the voices of
young people when you can't hear what they say?" (credited
to one L. P. Smith. Good enough for uncommitted browsing.
January 4, 2024
Commonplace books are fascinating: collections of quotes, extracts, which, as Kundera said, reveal more about the collector than about the extracts.
So yes, there's always lengthy stuff you don't necessarily care about - in my case, lots of poetry, especially old (anglo-saxon), which leaves me cold.
But also many good bits, and some extra entries by Auden that add to the whole.
Nice.
So yes, there's always lengthy stuff you don't necessarily care about - in my case, lots of poetry, especially old (anglo-saxon), which leaves me cold.
But also many good bits, and some extra entries by Auden that add to the whole.
Nice.
November 15, 2022
skimmed
August 20, 2020
Surprisingly, this book was my introduction to the writings of W. H. Auden. It also was the first commonplace book that I encountered in my young reading life. For a reader with an untamable imagination and an insatiable desire to explore different writers this type of book, and this one in particular, is perfect.
November 5, 2016
Love the book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews