Critical Perspectives

by Robert A. Morace, Matthew J. Bruccoli, Kathryn VanSpanckeren

“I hope they’re interesting, I hope not more interesting than the fiction,” says John Gard­ner in his Afterword to these twelve essays that probe deeply into each of his major nov­els, his epic poem, his children’s stories, and his work as a librettist. Contents “ Et in Arcadia Gardner’s Early Novels” by David Cowart; “‘Into the Farther Darkness’: The Mani­chaean Pastoralism of John Gardner” by Samuel Coale; “A Babylonian in Mesopotamian Literature and Lore in The Sunlight Dialogues ” by Greg Morris; and “ Grendel and The Contraries of Exis­tence” by Helen B. Ellis and Warren U. Ober. “John Gardner’s Grendel ” by Jerome Klin­kowitz; “Survival and Redemptive Vision in Jason and Medeia ” by John Trimbur; “Sailing Through The King’s Indian with John Gardner and His Friends” by Donald J. Greiner; “Modern Moralities for John Gardner’s Children’s Books” by Geraldine DeLuca and Roni Natov. “John Gardner, A Composer’s Notes” by Joseph Baber; “The Real Monster in Freddy’s Book ” by Walter Cummins; “Magi­cal Embedded Structures in the Work of John Gardner” by Kathryn Van­Spanckeren; and “New Fiction, Popular Fic­tion, and John Gardner’s Middle/Moral Way” by Robert A. Morace.

200 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1982