What W. H. Auden Can Do for You

by Alexander McCall Smith

When facing a moral dilemma, Isabel Dalhousie--Edinburgh philosopher, amateur detective, and title character of a series of novels by best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith--often refers to the great twentieth-century poet W. H. Auden. This is no accident: McCall Smith has long been fascinated by Auden. Indeed, the novelist, best known for his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, calls the poet not only the greatest literary discovery of his life but also the best of guides on how to live. In this book, McCall Smith has written a charming personal account about what Auden has done for him--and what he just might do for you.

Part self-portrait, part literary appreciation, the book tells how McCall Smith first came across the poet's work in the 1970s, while teaching law in Belfast, a violently divided city where Auden's "September 1, 1939," a poem about the outbreak of World War II, strongly resonated. McCall Smith goes on to reveal how his life has related to and been inspired by other Auden poems ever since. For example, he describes how he has found an invaluable reflection on life's transience in "As I Walked Out One Evening," while "The More Loving One" has provided an instructive meditation on unrequited love. McCall Smith shows how Auden can speak to us throughout life, suggesting how, despite difficulties and change, we can celebrate understanding, acceptance, and love for others.

An enchanting story about how art can help us live, this book will appeal to McCall Smith's fans and anyone curious about Auden.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Biography, Literary Criticism, Criticism, Literature, Memoir

141 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what is now known as Zimbabwe and he was a law professor at the University of Botswana. He lives in Scotland. Visit him online at www.alexandermccallsmith.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Reviews

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sometimes wish that Wystan Auden had quit his 2-pack-per-day smoking habit and lived, like me, to a happy-sad old age. An age when he too finally would have finished navigating his own life-long Age of Anxiety!

But that will all change in heaven, I guess.

For there I imagine we'll together muse over the wistful but glad strains of Pergolesi - heard there chanting, by Eliot's voices "singing in the wind" of heaven, his mournful Stabat Mater - as we call to mind our friends who still moil in the Eternal Flame, below us.

Yes - sad; but, in a wistful way, glad we are finally safe at Home...
***

This, in the other hand, is a wonderful lightweight read, so Relax!

But it’s a sleeper - for its insights will softly sneak up on you and Clobber you with their Truth...

I like McCall Smith’s cozy mysteries a lot, but this one is not clearly so much enlightened escapism as the others. And it‘ll wake you up to the Very Human and Real Face of Modernity. And maybe your own place in it.

So - it’s a fair, balanced - and somewhat deficient in depth - but Honest look at someone EVERYONE of our literary generation has heard of.

It is a fresh look at a literary icon, and reading it is a lot like riding in a convertible - and feeling the cool breezes envelop you like an astringent plunge into the sea.

And inspiration it surely is, but also something much more.

Whenever I read great poetry I feel like I’m discovering parts of myself in it...

And McCall Smith amplifies this feeling in me, and perhaps in you, too (if you read my Kindle notes on it)!

For he shows, first, from Auden’s life, how RADICALLY different from others, yet Radically HIMSELF, Auden really was.

How is that even Possible nowadays?

It’s not even possible, it’s a Reality - and you CAN find your Real Self in this mixed-up world - with feelings of Ease and Comfort!

For, as McCall Smith says at the end, Auden prized above all other qualities a person’s at-homeness in the world.

The fact that they know themselves and the world equally thoroughly, and they are STILL able to MAKE THEMSELVES AT HOME in it!

Now, maybe that seems like a tall order. Or maybe it sounds insignificant. But it is, in fact a HUGE but fairly COMMON occurrence.

In the life of myself, and my family and friends it’s called Graduation from the School of Hard Knocks.

If you think you’re not yet ready for the deeper, brainier insights of life, perhaps, as the late American Zen teacher Charlotte Beck said cheerfully, “life hasn’t knocked you around enough yet!”

Many of my old-timer friends, like me, have lived long enough to know what the world’s about. And yes, a lot of it’s just plain No Fun.

And yet somehow, they’ve settled into it quite comfortably.

In their OWN UNIQUE WAY.

This home in the midst of the world is, in fact, their unique INDIVIDUALITY.

Jung called it Individuation. Happens when the Hard Knocks of life open up a magical rabbit hole to your hidden, subconscious Self.

Now, if you don’t see how warm, human comfort can be a valid response to the amoral chaos of the subconscious, read this book.

It puts a whole new face on Auden - and, hopefully, on our own stultified mindsets.

Wouldn’t you like to make your sometimes unfriendly environment into a more comfortable home for your highly unique soul?

It could give YOUR humdrum life a brand New Face.

And give you a new sense of pride - and Comfort - in your own very Human Uniqueness, surrounded as you are by so many Separate Human Uniquenesses -

Who one hopes will find Themselves:

And the world...

As REAL, Human but Completely Awake Entities, at Home and at Peace in a jarringly Real World.

[Phrynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on the premise that I will enjoy anything that this author writes I read this, his introduction to the life and poetry of W.H. Auden. This is not a genre I would normally choose but this small book turned out to be quite wonderful.

Auden is not a poet I know an awful lot about but he captured me very early on with a quote from his famous poem Funeral Blues.
"He was my North, My South, my East, and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk. my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong."

The poet had a very interesting life and McCall Smith's narrative is informative, beautifully written and never too heavy. However the real interest in the book is how he tells of the effect Auden has had on his own personal life. He describes him as a guide on how to live and tells of moments in his own life which were affected by Auden's work. As a result one of his best book characters, Isabel Dalhousie, also admires Auden and frequently quotes him.

I enjoyed the way McCall Smith was able to write such a convincing account of Auden's life and work in a scholarly fashion and yet it was still so delightfully readable. He adds little anecdotes and whimsical asides which are so very much in the same way he writes his books. It was informative, entertaining and it sparked me to read more poems by W.H.Auden. Recommended.

[Samadrita · Rating 3 out of 5]

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

My association with W.H. Auden and his literary output has been restricted to the occasional browsing through poets.org which gave rise to a somewhat fickle love for Lullaby (which I couldn't help but read more than once) and As I walked Out One Evening. But somehow the lines faded away from memory as soon as I closed the browser window, sometimes mere beautiful words and perfect cadence aren't sufficient to stimulate further intellectual curiosity. But Alexander McCall Smith's near fanboyish enthusiasm for one of the greatest English poets of the 20th century has forced me to reconsider my views on Auden and maybe even provided the much needed push to delve into his oeuvre further.

This is not literary criticism per se, but rather a mixed bag of Smith's views on the poet's personal life, his body of work and the way his worldviews figured in his poetry. It goes without saying, literature students may find this book vastly redundant as it contains nothing that hasn't already been recorded by academicians who have analyzed and dissected Auden's poetry from all probable angles. And Smith acknowledges this right at the beginning, very clearly stating that his intention behind writing this has been to offer a tribute to Auden who was, in a way, his personal literary icon.

There are separate chapters devoted to Auden's early years at Gresham's School, another one in the long tradition of stiff upper-lipped English boarding schools, and later at Oxford, his lifelong friendship with Christopher Isherwood who had been inspired to write the renowned Goodbye to Berlin after Auden's visit to Berlin in 1928, his homosexual dalliances, his desire to drive an ambulance during Spanish Civil War which resulted in one of his celebrated, but subsequently disowned, poems 'Spain' (vehemently denounced by George Orwell who of course was accredited with a deeper understanding of the politics of the Civil War), his growing admiration for socialism in the wake of the rise of fascism in Europe prior to the Second World War and his eventual disillusionment with Communism.

Auden's poetry is widely criticized as a hollow compilation of sublime imagery and flowery writing with little to no depth but Smith, in the tradition of most Auden lovers, defends the sanctity of his work with assertions like the following:-

"'In Praise of Limestone' contributes greatly to the appeal of what he wrote. It is easy on the ear - and ease here has no pejorative implications: the fact that something is easy to listen to does not make it less intellectually significant."

"There are plenty of poets, especially those given to the writing of confessional verse, who are ready to tell us about their particular experience of love. We listen sympathetically, and may indeed be touched or inspired by their insights. But few poets transcend the personal when talking about love. They are talking, really, about how they felt when they were in love; Auden digs far deeper than that. He talks about love and flesh as it can be experienced by all of us - he transcends the specific experience in a particular place and time, to get to the heart of what we are."

Smith also makes a significant point in regard to Auden's disposition as a poet, he was known to acknowledging misrepresentations of facts in his earlier poems instead of quietly hoping for the work in contention to be erased from public memory like the other writers of his time did. He humbly accepted his mistakes and was extremely self-critical.

To conclude, this is a fine book to gift to the random Auden devotee and perfect for introducing Auden to a neophyte who knows virtually nothing about the great Anglo-American poet (like myself for instance).

Trivia:-Auden was married to Thomas and Katia Mann's eldest daughter Erika.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in September of 2013 on the 40th anniversary of the death of Auden. Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973), an English poet, won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1948, the Bollingen Prize in 1954 and many more awards over the years.

Smith tells about how he discovered Auden’s poetry when he was working at Queen’s University in Belfast. After he returned to Edinburgh, he went to a public reading by Auden in George Square. Smith goes on to tell about Auden and his poetry. Smith states that when he started writing novels he found himself quoting Auden, particularly in the Isabel Dalhousie, Sunday Philosophy Club series. Smith says Auden had an ear for the rhythmic possibilities of English and that there is an intense humanity about Auden’s poetry.

The book is well written and a pleasure to read. The book also provides me with a bit of insight into Alexander McCall Smith, the man and author. I was aware of the reference to Auden in AMS’s books, but this book has triggered me to look for Auden’s poems.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is very short at just about three hours. William Neenan does a good job narrating the book. Neenan is an actor and audiobook narrator.

[Melora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not remotely a scholarly study of Auden and his poetry (thank goodness) – the author refers readers seeking an academic angle to other works – this is both a personal appreciation (Smith describes various ways Auden's poetry has given him insights and delight) and an exploration of the ways that poetry, more generally, can enrich one's life. Deeply familiar with Auden's work, Smith is not blind to his flaws, but he focuses on the lovely language and images, and on the idea that Auden offers guidance to a “middle path” in life, balancing between the human desires for political engagement/worldly achievement and for private pleasures and spiritual growth – between the active life and the contemplative one.

I picked this up not because I've been a huge fan of Smith's fiction or of Auden's poetry, but because my dad, who is not a religious believer, has found a tremendous lot of spiritual solace in recent years in Smith's books, and I've read a couple out of curiosity. So far I've liked Mma Precious Ramotswe, of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, best – Isabel Dalhousie (Sunday Philosophy Club series) and Professor Dr von Igelfeld (Portuguese Irregular Verbs) are both pretty obnoxious, at least in their opening books – but I have been impressed by the way Smith portrays a wide range of quirky individuals with real warmth and sympathy. The characters in the books I've read myself and those my dad has described to me are wonderfully diverse in backgrounds and interests – they engage in philosophy, linguistics, music, law, politics, natural science, etc. – suggesting an author who views the world with a friendly, intelligent curiosity. In this little book on Auden, Smith seems to credit the poet with helping him develop this outlook, emphasizing Auden's compassion for those suffering and his appreciation for the love and the loveliness which also fill the world.

I was surprised by the number of “typo” sorts of errors I ran across – the sorts of things that should have been caught by a proof reader, but this is a minor complaint. As I said, I didn't start this as a big Auden fan, but by the time I'd finished I had quite a list of poems Smith had discussed that I now need to read or reread. Recommended!

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I have learned so much from this poet. I have been transported b his words. My life has been enriched by his language. I have stopped and thought, and thought, over so many of his lines. He can be with us in every part of our lives., showing us how rich life can be, and how precious. For that, I am more grateful to him than I can ever say.”

What WH Auden Can Do For You is a non-fiction book by popular Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith. Anyone familiar with Alexander McCall Smith’s writing will be aware of his love of this poet’s work. His characters quote Auden and often refer to him in their conversations. In this little book (and it is little: a pocket-sized hardback of a mere 137 pages), McCall Smith shares what he loves about Auden, a bare minimum of historical facts about the poet, his own journey with Auden’s works, and commentary on various of Auden’s works, their background and their relevance, even in today’s world.

He makes observations on Auden’s controversial works, and on how his work developed. There are plenty of wise words: “We are what we are because we are who we are, and who we are is usually the result of factors outside our control.”

On Auden’s Freud poem: “Both throw light on dark corners – the dark furniture of the mind – and show us that the shapes are threatening only because we allow them to be; and after all, they are only shapes.”

On Auden’s Lullaby: “he puts into words the universal human experience, something that we all will have had but may never have been able to articulate ourselves”

McCall Smith says that “Auden reminds us to be grateful, and that is something that we increasingly need to be reminded of in a culture of expectation and entitlement. Consumerist culture has encouraged us to complain – we have become good at that – but it does not encourage us to say thank you.”

For readers who have not knowingly read Auden, but are fans of McCall Smith, the highlight will be his own experiences, told in little anecdotes: how he came to buy a book on the history of psychoanalysis in Morocco, in a tiny, dusty book shop in Casablanca; the one occasion he heard Auden recite in person; the “life imitates art” occasion when a scene he wrote in an Isabel Dalhousie book essentially later happened in real life.

Of course there are quotes and some gentle advice and, because this is Alexander McCall Smith, there is humour. This book may spur the reader on to try some Auden; it may even reveal that they have, unwittingly, read some already; but just for the personal bits, this is a worthwhile read.

[Jacki (Julia Flyte) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alexander McCall Smith has long been fascinated by the poetry - and life - of W H Auden. One of his main characters, Isabel Dalhousie, is a devotee of the poet, while another, Mma Ramotswe, also shares his views on life. As McCall Smith explains, he has "learned so much from this poet. I have bathed in the richness of his language. I have wept over some of his lines. He can be with us in every part of our lives, showing us how rich life can be, and how precious". In this short book, McCall Smith talks about Auden's life and also explains the themes in his poetry which resonates with him.

Prior to reading this book I didn't know much about Auden, other than the fact that he was an English poet and that he was homosexual. In his 20s he travelled widely, living for a time in Berlin and also in Spain (where he had intended to drive an ambulance in the Civil War). At this time, he was close friends with Christopher Isherwood. In 1939 he moved to the US where he lived the majority of his life until his death in 1973.

Many of the themes in Auden's poetry reflect his sexuality, his interest in psychology and politics and his religious beliefs. McCall Smith talks about all of these things as well as picking up on common techniques that Auden used (for example inverting sentences for greater impact, the use of archaic words and personalising inanimate objects). McCall Smith has a conversational writing style which makes this book feel very personal, as if you're sitting down for a chat with him. One of the things that I like about his novels is the way that he seems to think a lot about how to live a better life and that also comes through in this book. I was particularly touched by the way that he talks about spiritual purpose and that religion can be an illogical but moral choice, making a determined commitment to pursue good.

Despite my comparative lack of interest in Auden going in, I enjoyed this book. And I now understand that the cover illustration is a reference to the poem "Musee des Beaux-Arts", where "the dogs go on with their doggy life" while Icarus falls unnoticed into the water behind them.

I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley and the publisher in return for an honest review.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say it better than Edward Mendelson, an Auden expert:

"Alexander McCall Smith's voice in this splendid book is instantly recognizable as the calm, sympathetic, psychologically shrewd, and morally generous one that narrates his novels. This is not only a convincing account of W.H. Auden's poetry and life. It is also a self-portrait ... ".

What are two things a writer must have? I think they are, something to say, and the ability to say exactly what s/he intended. Nobody does this better than McCall Smith.

[Graeme · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an exquisite little book. Little books fit lightly into purses and briefcases, and help us meet the GoodReads Reading Challenge in less time.

Alexander McCall Smith is an author of cozies, a recent noun that I think means mystery novels that are not too gruesome or violent, in which the bad guys are murdered and everyone else is very nice. In some cases there is no violent crime, just a mysterious situation to be resolved. I have discovered in the years of my burgeoning maturity that they do make me feel cozy and happy, and that I usually like their protagonists.

McCall Smith introduced the category to me in about 2004 with his The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, of which I very soon tired, but I did like most of the Isabel Dalhousie series, set in Edinburgh. Despite his semi-industrial productivity and somewhat uneven quality, McCall Smith is an exceedingly nice man, and furthermore he has quoted poems of W.H. Auden in at least those two series and probably others. I love Auden and his work dearly, as does McCall Smith. That's the clincher for me!

I very much enjoyed his tales of Auden himself, his literary executor, Edward Mendelson, and even the friendship that seemed to develop between the McCall Smiths and the Mendelsons. They seem like old friends of mine too, and I am pretty sure that I know at least one of their cousins. Life is good, and kind people are worthy of love and publishing success.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

No surprise that a book by this author is charming, but it is also more. Drawn to this book by curiosity, I feel better after reading it, and can't help feeling as if I am better for having read it, and immediately recommended it to my husband, and now I am recommending it to you, too.

I'm sure you can read the blurb and decide for yourself if it is not your cup of tea, but if you have any curiosity about it at all, I think you will find it worth your while.

[Ben Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like sitting down over coffee to a good conversation, not with an expert, but with a friend who has read just a little more than you.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alexander McCall Smith's What W.H. Auden Can Do for You is inspired by Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life in that it is an informal, brief, but highly useful guide to a major literary figure. Reading it made me want to curl up with an edition of Auden's poems and compare my reactions to his.

Auden has always puzzled me somewhat, and I would very much like to be better acquainted with his work.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is heartfelt and pleasant to read - a reviewer in The Wall Street Journal panned it, but I think he missed the point entirely. McCall Smith does not present himself as a scholar of Auden, but as an appreciative reader of Auden, and there is a big difference between the two. In my view, knowing WHY someone loves a writer is just as important as a scholarly analysis of that writer. At any rate, who cuddles up with a book of scholarly analysis on a snowy day? Not this reader.

Only downsides to this text are some typos, which I was definitely surprised to see, given the publishing house. There are also folks who are not really interested in poetry or poets...but they may be exactly the sort who could use a book like this.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those books that makes you go back and look at something you think you like much closer, only to discover that you love it. Like many people, I was blown away by the reading of "Funeral Blues" in the movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral," which I still think is one of the funniest movies ever. But what makes me remember the film is the scene where the mourning lover recites the poem.

After I saw the movie, I ran out and bought the little book Auden: Poems from the Everyman's Library series right away and found the poem. There was only one other poem in that book that spoke to me at the time "The Unknown Citizen," which sounded so much like Vonnegut, that I decided that Auden was my favorite poet. I didn't have any other poets to admire, so there was a very short list to choose from until I heard "Self Pity" by D.H. Lawrence - I found that in The Complete Poems. The psychopath trainer in "G.I. Jane," recited it, and it might be the best part of that whole movie. Lawrence was simply not urban enough to top Auden for me.

This book explains how a poet can change your life. I am a movie buff, so I remember the line in the movie "Contact" where Jodie Foster sees the beauty of the universe and says, "They should have sent a poet." My kids are always telling me to listen to this song or that song because poetry and songwriting are about letting someone articulate what you are not able to. For me, the same is true for Vonnegut and Auden. I want to scream the things they are saying, but it comes out garbled when I say it, and it sounds exactly right when they say it. I do remember how I thought that R.E.M. cared more about how things sounded than what they meant - and I liked them for it. Smith says the same thing about Auden:

From "Journey to Iceland" (Collected Poems p 126)

"Each traveller prays Let me be far from any
Physician, every port has its name for the sea,
the citiless, the corroding, the sorrow,
and North means to all Reject."

I learned from Smith that "ports" was a typo and was supposed to "poets," but Auden thought the word ports sounded better, and so chose sound over meaning. I love the idea of ports having names for the sea. Of course, poets and all writers do, but that's not very inspiring.

I have not read anything else that Smith has written, but Auden clearly inspired him. He was convincing enough that I was moved to pull down my Auden books and look at the work in the light of how it affected him. I have dog-eared more pages in his little book than almost any other I own because those pages point to hidden gems in Auden's work, and I want to find every single line he mentions.

If you are a fan of Auden already, or if you are a fan of Vonnegut, I would suggest you take a look at this book or let Auden speak for himself - the "Everyman's Library" collection is an easy read.

[Bryn]

I have a vague inclination to like McCall Smith, and I am very fond of Auden, so I thought this would be delightful, but... no. First of all, there are typos, not many, but several critical ones which change the meaning of sentences, and while I do not hold that against the author as this is what professional well-paid copyeditors (a rare breed) are meant to catch, it does detract from the experience of the book to have to mentally correct sentences so that they make sense. However, my larger problem is that whatever McCall Smith's actual experience is, he writes as though he has never encountered any poetry other than Auden's, so standard poetic techniques (like personification) are described as though Auden is the first person to have ever used them and wasn't he so clever to do this although maybe also a little strange to suggest that objects might think or talk or act like people? Which is just -- so odd as a writing choice, it comes across as false naivete, pretending Auden invented everything he did from whole cloth. I understand not wanting to be technical or spend too much effort siting Auden in a poetic tradition, but the way McCall Smith handled it bugged me so much that I gave up on the book.

[Patrik Bystrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not quite sure what to make of this cute little volume. It is light in spirit and conveys McCall Smith’s personal responses to reading Auden’s verse. However, the title “What Auden has done for me” might have been more suitable as most impressions and thoughts were purely personal reflections. Probably more interesting for those who want to learn more about the man behind the Ladies Detective Agency. Having said all this, the book has introduced me to a few Auden poems previously unknown to me.

[Geoff Bartakovics · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wanted this to be another How Proust Can Save Your Life type ode to a master, but it's just too basic-bitch to matter.

[David Highton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author demonstrates how the stages of Auden’s life are reflected in his poetry. An interesting book which did not quite resonate as my reading of Auden has been pretty limited - I will aim to rectify that a bit.

[Maria Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. As always with the knowledgeable Alexander, so much information to absorb. I read this book as in the Isabel Dalhousie books written by Alexander he refers to Auden all the time, as Isabel qoutes Auden frequently.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting reflections.

[Alex Diaz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love W.H. Auden. I find his poetry to be some of the most moving and current in the collective oeuvre of Western Poetry – which is why I found this book so resoundingly disappointing. I can admit that Auden is a hard topic to write on, seeing as there are likely a small library’s worth of books written about him and his poetry. Still, it takes a remarkable ego to make a book about Auden that’s actually a book about “things I find interesting and I’m convinced Auden would have agreed with, but he’s dead, so oh well” (not a direct quote). I’m afraid Mr. Smith’s weakness in approaching this project was that he assumed that as a writer (of several pulpy mystery series’), his opinions regarding everything Auden wrote about would be more interesting than what Auden actually wrote about (and frankly, anyone that uses the words “eros” and “agape” [pronounced ah-gah-pay] without quotes shouldn’t even be allowed to leave the house). The book is billed as an introduction to Auden’s work and life, but it more accurately resembles a livejournal post that occasionally references Auden.

Overall Rating: Use As A Doorjamb.

[Ron Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never been a huge fan of books that analyze poetry. They tend to drain the beauty and humanity from the very poems they set out to make more approachable for the reader. For this reason, I was especially excited to read a poem about Auden by one of my favorite authors.
As it turns out, I would definitely recommend this book to a person who wants to get a very personal, warm sense of what can be gained by reading Auden's poetry. On the other hand, I would say that Smith does an even better job of making Auden relevant and real through his 44 Scotland Street series. In those books, the quotes from Auden are placed into a wonderful human context, and Auden's words are used to illuminate the heartfelt experiences of the characters. From time to time, while reading those books, I found myself reading the excerpts from Auden more carefully, more slowly, then ever before. I love Auden already, and am familiar with his work, so the fact that Smith breathes life into the words to have them touch my heart speaks volumes. Perhaps Smith's greatest talents lie along his fictional writing.

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

What unfortunately prevented me to fully enjoy this book is the total lack of information on my part about Auden, which, however, are largely provided by the book, but of course now I'm a bit more interested not so much on hes life, but rather on his work, almost entirely unknown to me, but for what little I have read here is really worth.

Quello che purtroppo mi ha impedito di godere appieno di questo libro é la totale mancanza di informazioni da parte mia su Auden, che comunque vengono in larga parte fornite dal libro, ma chiaramente ora mi interesse sapere un po´di piú non tanto sulla sua vita, quanto piuttosto sulla sua opera, che ignoro quasi in toto, ma per quel poco che ho letto qui vale veramente la pena.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW!

[svm · Rating 3 out of 5]

i've read pretty much everything this author has written (except medical law textbooks!) so in spite of not being a huge poetry fan (my own fault entirely for not making the effort), i had to give this a try. also, i was going to a lecture related to the book and i didn't want to be completely in the dark. i enjoyed both book and lecture but did not find myself rushing out to purchase tomes of auden's work. however, coincidentally enough, the v. next day, i did get a new task at work of reorganizing a donated poetry collection and not surprisingly, there were auden titles in it!

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never been able to appreciate poetry very much, and I don't know why. But I tried hard with this book, since Alexander McCall Smith is one of my very favorite authors, and he often refers to W.H. Auden in his series. This was a beautifully written, fascinating book, and I learned a lot about Auden and his poetry. But I think it's McCall Smith's own writing style that I really enjoyed here.

[Elena Sala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though brief and easy to read, this text provides a useful overview of Auden's poetry and his life. It does not deal in depth with any of his poems nor is it scholarly at all. Rather, it is a sort of "whimsical" biography. Most of Auden's poems are somewhat challenging so a first time reader may find this book helpful. And of course, it will be a great read for those interested in McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie novels.

[Bev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful contribution to the Writers on Writers collection -- Alexander McCall Smith has incorporated thoughts on W H Auden in a number of his books, especially the Isobel Dalhousie series, and in this little book he traces his own experience of reading (and thinking about) Auden's poetry. It sent me to an anthology of 20th Century Poetry to read more so I could share his enthusiasm.

[Rocks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thank Alexander McCall Smith and his character Isabelle Dalhousie for introducing me to W. H. Auden. Being American, I wasn’t familiar with him nor his work. Now I can say that I know his work and it’s meaning a lot better. Although, still no pro.

This book was like a poetry class analyzing Auden. I enjoyed that. But I prefer to read Mma Ramotswe or Isabelle for Auden quotes.

[Kerry Bridges · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not good at poetry, I like simple rhymes and I am terrible at hidden meanings. I actually still don't like Auden's poetry having read this book. But I really, really like Alexander McCall Smith and this is just as much his story as Auden's. If you like him, you should read it!

[Clifton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is as much about Smith as it is about Auden. As an Auden fan and one-time scholar, I appreciate Smith's insights. He leaves one wanting more. Maybe that's not a bad thing, especially if he attracts more people to read one of the finest poets of the 20th century.