The Prose Factory: Literary Life in Britain Since 1918 - Softcover

Taylor, D J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099556073 ISBN 13: 9780099556077

Publisher: Vintage Books, 2017

Synopsis

What do we mean when we talk about ‘taste’? 'Taste’ takes countless forms. There is the exclusive taste of highbrow critics such as T.S. Eliot and F.R. Leavis. There is the taste of ordinary book lovers persuaded to buy the best-sellers of the day. And there is the taste of Virginia Woolf’s elusive ‘common reader’. A taste that in the days of the Victorian reading public was founded on shared standards but now, in the age of Twitter and the blogosphere, is fragmenting into chaos.

Spanning a century of literary history, from the pitched battles fought between Eliot-era modernists and Georgian traditionalists to the political in-fighting of the Thirties, the arrival of the upwardly mobile post-war ‘New Man’ and the impact of creative writing degrees and the media don, The Prose Factory explores the myriad influences on English literary life in the past century and the way in which they have shaped our preferences.

It is also a tale of personalities – ‘star reviewers’, sniping critics, caballing editors, crusading ideologues, megalomaniac professors, Arts Council functionaries – a tale of dazzling successes and embittered failures in which gossip and intrigue are as important as intellectual zeal. Above all, it is a study of change. We live in a world where it is ever more difficult for professional writers to make a living, where the dangers of institutionalisation lurk on every corner and where critical authority is giving way to the whims of cyberspace. Wide-ranging and controversial, as interested in the newspaper essayist and the bookclub best-seller as the view from Mount Olympus, The Prose Factory is the book that D.J. Taylor was born to write.

About this title

About the Author

D. J. TAYLOR's novels include English Settlement, which won a Grinzane Cavour Prize, Trespass and Derby Day, both of which were long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and Kept: A Victorian Mystery. His other books include After the War: The Novel and England Since 1945, Thackeray, Orwell: The Life, which won the 2003 Whitbread Biography Prize, and Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940. He lives in Norwich with his wife, the novelist Rachel Hore, and their three sons.

Review

"An entertaining history of literary life." -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Daily Telegraph * "Engaging, assured and entertaining." -- James Kidd * Independent * "Wide ranging, entertaining and thoughtful survey" -- Michael Prodger * The Times * "An amazing achievement" * David Lodge * "A pleasingly gossipy history of literary life in England since 1918...very enjoyable" * Observer * "Elegantly written, defiantly intelligent, scrupulously researched and richly enjoyable." -- John Preston * Mail on Sunday * "Riveting" -- Max Liu * Independent on Sunday * "A cross between a series of critical essays and a connected history... Its great strength lies in the freshness of his critical responses... The sheer vitality of Taylor's engagement with books...is infectious... Perceptive portraits and crisp judgments." -- Stefan Collini * Guardian * "[Taylor's] grand historical survey, covering publishing, reviewing, writing, making a living, and teaching, charts the rise of the man of letters... Well researched and informative." -- Michele Roberts * Financial Times *

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0099556073
• ISBN 13: 9780099556077
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528