W.H. Auden (Magill’s Literary Annual 1997)
At a glance:
- Author: Richard Davenport-Hines
- First Published: 1995
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1907-1973
- Setting: England; New York City; Berlin; Ischia, Italy; Kirchstetten, Austria
- Principal Characters: Wystan Hugh Auden, Constance Rosalie Auden, Dr. George Augustus Auden, Chester Kallman, Christopher Isherwood
- Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Ideology, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Love or romance, Literature, Poetry or poets, Spiritual life or spirituality, Immigration or emigration, Christianity
- Locales: New York, NY, England, Berlin, Germany, Italy, Austria
There is little question of W. H. Auden’s importance to Anglo-American literature. His poetry—in a career that ran from the late 1920’s through the early 1970’s—was not only a model of formal grace and flexibility, but illuminated several of the most important issues of the century: the role of ideology (especially in the Depression and World War II), the nature of love and sexual relationships, and the difficulties of the spiritual quest. This new biography by Richard Davenport-Hines presents Auden’s life in some detail, but also manages to include long analyses of the...
[The entire page is 1981 words long]
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