Bernard Bergonzi (1929–2016)
Author of T.S. Eliot: Four Quartets
About the Author
Bernard Bergonzi was born in London, England on April 13, 1929. He was a poet, critic, and professor. He taught English literature at Manchester University and Warwick University, where he remained until he retired in 1992. He wrote monographs on H. G. Wells, T. S. Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins, show more Thomas Arnold, and Graham Greene. His other books included Manchester: The Early H. G. Wells, Heroes' Twilight, The Situation of the Novel, The Myth of Modernism, Exploding English, The Roman Persuasion, Wartime and Aftermath, War Poets and Other Subjects, A Victorian Wanderer, and A Study in Greene. He died on September 20, 2016 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Bernard Bergonzi
Evelyn Waugh's Gentlemen 1 copy
The Novel No Longer Novel 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1929-04-13
- Date of death
- 2016-09-20
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Newbattle Abbey College, Dalkeith, Scotland, UK
University of Oxford (Wadham College) - Occupations
- literary scholar
critic
poet
emeritus professor of English - Organizations
- University of Warwick (emeritus professor of English)
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- London, England, UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
For specialised tastes, but well-written and thought-provoking. Fictional treatment rather than exposition allows Bergonzi to explore the tragic dimension of the attempt to contradict Christ’s statement that his kingdom is not of this world.
Crazy uneven: the introductory chapters are great. Bergonzi was clearly at his best making general arguments, and the contrasts he draws between American and English literature are interesting. But in his readings of innumerable English novels, it just gets boring. This is interpretation as plot summary. But when he's writing about the relation between literature and society, he's great.
852 Heroes' Twilight: a Study of the Literature of the Great War, by Bernard Bergonzi (read 14 May 1966) This is a study of English writing emanating from World War I. Robert Graves' Goodbye To All That is called an "undoubted English autobiographical masterpiece of the war." Bergonzi seems to feel Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End is the top fiction to come out of the war from England. Frederic Manning's Her Private We also appears worth reading. While he devotes a chapter to In Parenthesis by show more David Jones, I doubt 'twould be worthwhile for me to read it. Poignant for me is this from Vernon Scannell's "The Great War":
And now,
Whenever the November sky
Quivers with a bugle's coarse, sweet cry,
The reason darkens, in its evening gleam
Crosses and flares, tormented wire, grey earth,
Splattered with crimson flowers,
And I remember,
Not the war I fought in
But the one called Great
Which ended in a sepia November
Four years before my birth." show less
And now,
Whenever the November sky
Quivers with a bugle's coarse, sweet cry,
The reason darkens, in its evening gleam
Crosses and flares, tormented wire, grey earth,
Splattered with crimson flowers,
And I remember,
Not the war I fought in
But the one called Great
Which ended in a sepia November
Four years before my birth." show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 28
- Also by
- 4
- Members
- 270
- Popularity
- #85,637
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 3
- ISBNs
- 61
- Languages
- 1