T.S. Eliot at the Turn of the Century
150.00 kr
In 1993, a group of Eliot scholars came together in Lund to address the question of T. S. Eliot´s standing a hundred years after his death and on the threshold of a new millennium. The 1990s were years of Eliot-bashing; much was made of his alleged misogyny, racism, and anti-semitism, and even at the beginning of decade it was obvious that the poet´s status had suffered. Bernard Bergonzi, Lois A. Cuddy, Barbara Everett, Rudolf Germer, Nancy D. Hargrove, M. Teresa Gibert-Maceda, Stephen Medcalf, A. David Moody, Kristian Smidt, and Marianne Thormählen analysed different aspects of Eliot´s work and found enough strength and power in it to be cautiously optimistic about his future. Emrys Jones read a paper on a Stratford production of Murder in the Cathedral which focused attention on Eliot´s writing for the stage, and Grover Smith, who could not attend the meeting, contributed a new approach to The Cocktail Party. All these essays were published in the volume called T. S. Eliot at the Turn of the Century, including A. David Moody on Eliot and the mind of Europe, Nancy D. Hargrove on Eliot´s annus mirabilis in Paris (1910-1911), Bernard Bergonzi on Eliot and the city, Lois A. Cuddy on evolution in Eliot´s work, Rudolf Germer on Eliot and religion, M. Teresa Gibert-Maceda on women and Eliot, Marianne Thormählen on the problem of the individual personality in Eliot´s poetry and plays, Stephen Medcalf on the Sweeney poems, Kristian Smidt on Eliot´s less than fair treatment of the Victorians in his criticism, and Barbara Everett on the unpleasantness of meeting Mr Eliot. The volume also contains an edited version of a panel discussion about Eliot´s standing and Eliot studies. (Lund Studies in English 86, 1984; 244 pp, ed. Marianne Thormählen.)
Related products
The Ladislaw Case
This sequel to Middlemarch is also in a limited sense a sequel to Dickens’ Bleak House. While there is no need to have read either novel in order to enjoy The Ladislaw Case, acquaintance with George Eliot’s characters and Dickens’ Inspector Bucket enhances the reader’s pleasure in following the twists and turns of the plot and the tribulations of the characters.
Read the blurb text
Click here for a synopsis
Here is a chapter from the book: [Ladislaw Chapter 23.pdf]
"Thormählen writes very well, moves the plot along, and keeps the tension at just the right pitch throughout. She does a particularly good job extrapolating Eliot's characters, convincingly making Ladislaw much less attractive than he is in Eliot's novel and revealing the implications of Rosamond's chilling egotism ... Thormählen ... has created an entertaining re-vision of a major Victorian novel [which] successfully extrapolates elements in [Middlemarch] that both illuminate and criticize [it]." George P. Landow, Editor-in-Chief, The Victorian Web.
'One of the pleasures of reading Imke Thormählen's murder mystery ... is that it works on two levels: even as it unravels the question of who committed the murder, the novel provides a thought-provoking sequel to George Eliot's Middlemarch. /---/ [It contains] ... strong narrative suspense, psychological realism, and a credible Victorian setting ... [I]maginatively and insightfully faithful to George Eliot's vision ... this novel ... reveals some of the hitherto untapped potential that lies latent in ... Eliot's novel and is, at the same time, a very good read indeed.'
Micael M. Clarke, George Eliot -- George Henry Lewes Studies, Nos. 64-65
'The characterization of the main protagonists in the story is generally consistent with that created by George Eliot ... Characters impress us or repel us by what they say. There is no difficulty here in recognizing their voices: the clear sombre voice of the disappointed Dr Lydgate; the excessively polite voice of Rosamond, so quick to criticize her husband and add to his sense of failure in his professional and social life; the irritable and yet self-critical voice of the young politician Ladislaw; the certain tones of Lady Chettam secure in her social position, correcting her sister "Dodo" and yet always caring for her ... If the reader has also devoured Middlemarch, he or she will be eager to meet old friends, to be reminded of some of the darker strands of that story, and ultimately, tense with expectations, excited to discover the murderer. We are kept guessing until very near the end and for most readers the revelation will be a real surprise.'
Ruth and Michael Harris, The George Eliot Review 44 (2013), 88-89
The Brontës and Education (paperback)
All the seven Brontë novels are concerned with education in both senses, that of upbringing as well as that of learning. The Brontë sisters all worked as teachers before they became published novelists. In spite of the prevalence of education in the sisters' lives and fiction, however, this is the first full-length book on the subject. Marianne Thormählen explores how their representations of fictional teachers and schools engage with the intense debates on education in the nineteenth century, drawing on a wealth of documentary evidence about educational theory and practice in the lifetime of the Brontës. This study offers much new information both about the Brontës and their books and about the most urgent issue in early-nineteenth-century British social politics: the education of the people, of all classes and both sexes.
The Brontës and Education, hardback
The Brontës and Education, paperback
Reviews so far
'Compelling and unique ... This thoroughly researched volume looks at ... contemporaneous education controversies. Summing up: highly recommended.' Choice
'... writes with considerable panache and vigor. In this reviewer's experience the book makes a very enjoyable read not only for a scholar public but for a general audience as well'. www.bronteblog.blogspot.com.
Read the whole review at http://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/bronts-and-education-review.html
'... crisp, objective and lively ... Thormählen triumphs in the light she shines on the educational world in which the family lived ... This book is an exciting helpmate in the struggle to secure a firm understanding of factors that fed the Brontë sisters' imaginative development ...' Brontë Studies
''Thormählen's prose is lucid yet sophisticated, each paragraph redolent with pithy thoughts and new twists on familiar truths ... Thormählen guides us sure-footedly ... [the notes constitute] a veritable textbook on early nineteenth-century education ... [The Brontës and Education is] a deeply satisfying work that enriches our appreciation of the Brontës and their world." Modern Philology
Eliot’s Animals
T. S. Eliot´s poems and plays are full of animals, from the alley cats of the early poems by way of the eagle, leopards, and unicorns in Ash-Wednesday to the birds in Four Quartets. Marianne Thormählen´s Eliot´s Animals takes you on a guided tour of Eliot´s bestiary, showing how the poet brought a rich variety of ideas about animals into his texts and invested those texts with layers of meaning derived from, for instance, Dante, Baudelaire, and the Bible. Eliot´s Animals is a book to dip into for the Eliot reader curious to see how a particular scene can be perceived with reference to the function of a particular animal image. There is no need to read it straight through -- but those who do will learn something new about Eliot´s range and subtlety in handling symbolic features. (Lund Studies in English No. 70, 1984; 197 pp.)
The Waste Land a Fragmentary Wholeness
T. S. Eliot is felt by many to have been the poet of the twentieth century, and his famous The Waste Land is the best known poem of that century in English. Many people have found it hard to come to grips with, though, and reading Eliot remains a challenge.
"A hoax", "tripe", a piece of "rhythmical grumbling" (the latter is the poet´s own description) -- is T. S. Eliot´s The Waste Land really worth all the attention it has come in for since its publication in 1922? Thousands of literary critics and scholars have been writing about it -- what inspired such enormous efforts? And will the new millennium gratefully drop it into semi-oblivion as a period piece belonging to the world of yesterday? You´ll know more about The Waste Land, and about Eliot, and about the way you yourself respond to modern poetry after reading Marianne Thormählen´s The Waste Land: A Fragmentary Wholeness. First published in 1978, it has become a standard work on the poem, partly thanks to its generous annotation and bibliography which have helped many students chart their own way through this challenging terrain. The book tells you about the poem´s gestation, Ezra Pound´s midwifery, metre and rhythm in the Waste Land, and the symbolic imagery that is such a powerful dimension in all of Eliot´s work. It also suggests ways of freeing the reader from the obligation to make it all hang together by working out a consistent "plan" or "structure". Let The Waste Land: A Fragmentary Wholeness help you form your own relationship with the greatest modernist poem, unhampered by preconceived notions and unworried by its alleged "difficulty". (Lund Studies in English No. 52, 1978; 248 pp.)
Verksamhetsberättelser
Ytterligare 13 konturskarpa berättelser. De nya berättelserna visar på en breddning av Thormählens litterära register. Förutom inslaget av svidande samhällssatir, som känns igen från de tidigare böckerna, ingår tre sinsemellan mycket olika kärlekshistorier i denna samling. Vidare finns reflexioner kring skeendena inom och utom den tysk-svenska verklighetens råmärken och en avslutande, klassisk julberättelse som suddar ut gränser av mer än ett slag.
"Berättelserna präglas av Thormählens finurliga infallsvinklar och ironiska distans och försätter läsaren omväxlande i en road och eftertänksamt allvarlig stämning."
Monika Ivarsson, Skånska Dagbladet
"Inte minst den skenbart paradoxala föreningen av satir och solidaritet, av lekfull distans och djup humanitet, gör läsningen till ett oavbrutet nöje."
Magnus Eriksson, Svenska Dagbladet
"Hans verksamhetsberättelser vill värna det skapande momentet i människors liv."
Göran Lundstedt, Sydsvenska Dagbladet
Beställ via förlagets hemsida, www.ellerstroms.se
Wilhelm
Banktjänstemannen Frieder K. är en vanlig familjefar som ställs inför ett ovanligt problem. Vissa tecken tyder på, att hans just avlidne far Wilhelm inte utan vidare låter sig bringas ur världen. Wilhelm dyker upp på det mest oväntade platser, och vissa handlingar finns inte där de borde vara. Frieder offrar dyrbara semesterdagar för att lösa "mysteriet Wilhelm" men blir bara alltmer osäker. Hans välordnade värld hänger helt plötsligt inte ihop längre. Frieder förändras under sitt sökande efter Wilhelm. Han börjar accepteraockså det ovissa och skrämmande i tillvaron, och gränsen mellan hans och faderns identiteter blir alltmer diffus för honom. Ur hans synvinkel blir tankegångar och handlingarsom för utomstående ter sig absurda, för att inte säga groteska, enbart logiska och nödvändiga.
Romanen om Frieder och hans far utspelar sig inom en generations nutid och förflutna, en generation vars första år sammanföll med Tredje Rikets Tyskland.
Beställ via förlagets hemsida, www.ellerstroms.se
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.