The Oxford Book of English Love Stories
by John Sutherland (Editor)
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Love, so the song goes, is a many-splendoured thing, and fiction has been trying for years both to promote and subvert the cliches it encourages. We turn to literature to learn what love is and what it should be, and readers of this collection will find consolation and inspiration in equalmeasure from some of the sharpest observers of this most essential human emotion.In tracing the lineaments of `English love' through the fiction of 200 years we can see something of its infinite variety and show more of the shifting rules of the game. Sylvia Plath seems closer to Aphra Behn than to Elizabeth Gaskell or even Thomas Hardy in her concept of feminine modesty, while violence,or sheer incomprehension, enter the definition in the worlds of D. H. Lawrence and Katherine Mansfield. Romantic love is at the heart of the `love story' and these stories, while taking love as their subject, do not always follow the conventional route. Bittersweet endings, ironic angles ontraditional platitudes and other surprises make the insights of writers such as Anne Ritchie, Somerset Maugham or V. S. Pritchett always fresh and challenging. Simple or sophisticated, sometimes comic and often very moving, these stories bring a delightful perspective to the mysteries of the Englishin love. show lessTags
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John Sutherland was born on October 9, 1938. After graduating from the University of Leicester in 1964, he began his academic career as an assistant lecturer in Edinburgh. He specializes in Victorian fiction, 20th century literature, and the history of publishing. He is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus of Modern English Literature at University show more College, London and is currently teaching at the California Institute of Technology. He writes for The Guardian and is a well-known literary reviewer. He is the author of more than 20 books including Stephen Spender: The Authorized Biography, How to Read a Novel: A User's Guide, The Boy Who Loved Books, Curiosities of Literature, 50 Literature Ideas You Really Need to Know, Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives, and Magic Moments: Life-Changing Encounters with Books, Film, Music. He is also the co-author, with Stephen Fender, of Love, Sex, Death and Words: Tales from a Year in Literature. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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