Argufying: Essays on Literature and Culture

by William Empson, John Haffenden (Editor)

BRAND NEW FIRST EDITION dust jacket hardcover, free tracking number, clean text, solid binding, NO remainders NOT ex-library, smoke free; slight gentle shelfwear / storage-wear; WE SHIP FAST. Carefully packed and quickly sent. 201607506as Sir William Empson 27 September 1906 – 15 April 1984) was an English literary critic and poet, widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, a practice fundamental to New Criticism. His best-known work is his first, Seven Types of Ambiguity, published in 1930. Jonathan Bate has written that the three greatest English literary critics of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are Johnson, Hazlitt and Empson, "not least because they are the funniest".Anyone interested in watching a great thinker at work will be fascinated. The excellent 60-page introduction will help the uninitiated; for researchers, the index is thorough. For all academic and larger public libraries.Please choose Priority / Expedited shipping for faster delivery. (No shipping to Mexico, Brazil or Italy.)

Genres: Essays, Literary Criticism

657 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Sir William Empson was an English literary critic and poet.

He was widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, fundamental to the New Critics. Jonathan Bate has said that the three greatest English Literary critics of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are Johnson, Hazlitt and Empson, "not least because they are the funniest".

Empson has been styled a "critic of genius" by Sir Frank Kermode, who qualified his praise by identifying willfully perverse readings of certain authors; and Harold Bloom has stated that Empson is among a handful of critics who matter most to him, because of their force and eccentricity. Empson's bluntness led to controversy both during his life and after his death, and a reputation in part also as a "licensed buffoon" (Empson's own phrase).