British Writers and the Approach of World War II

Ellis explores the ways in which British modernist writers wrestled with the acute anxiety and anticipation preceding World War II.

List of contents

1. Post-Munich I: T. S. Eliot and the spiritual revival; 2. Post-Munich II: literature of the crisis; 3. H. G. Wells and the new world order; 4. Orwell, Forster and the role of the writer; 5. Virginia Woolf and the theatre of war.

About the author

Steve Ellis is Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham and has published on a wide range of both medieval and modern literature. His previous books include Dante and English Poetry: Shelley to T. S. Eliot (1983); The English Eliot: Design, Landscape and Language in 'Four Quartets' (1991); Chaucer at Large: The Poet in the Modern Imagination (2000); Virginia Woolf and the Victorians (2007) and T. S. Eliot: A Guide for the Perplexed (2009). He has edited several volumes, including Chaucer: An Oxford Guide (2005). Ellis is also a poet and translator, having published three volumes of poetry and an acclaimed translation of Dante's Inferno.

Summary

Ellis explores the ways in which modernist writers like T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and H. G. Wells witnessed the approach of World War II and how their writings raised profound questions emblematic of the era. No other literary study has looked at the period covered in such detail.

Product details

• Authors: Steve Ellis, Steven Ellis
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.10.2014
• EAN: 9781107054585
• ISBN: 978-1-107-05458-5
• No. of pages: 260
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Second World War fiction, English, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000