William Empson

Examines seven types of ambiguity, providing examples of it in the writings of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and T.S. Eliot.

Seven Types of Ambiguity

Some Versions of Pastoral

Sinomania

Reprint of the ed. published by New Directions, Norfolk, Conn. in 1961.

Milton's God

Empson has long been applauded for the dazzling intelligence and emotional passion of his poems. Praised in his lifetime by the likes of T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and John Betjeman, his reputation contines to be high. His poems take a wide range of themes from metaphysics to melancholy, social climbing to political satire, and from love to loss.

The Complete Poems

The Voice of the Underdog

Using Biography

The Structure of Complex Words

William Empson (1906SH84) was one of the twentieth century's most distinctive critical voices, and left a profound mark upon Anglo-American literary culture. This book is the first full study of Empson's literary criticism in its various aspects, taking account of recent developments in critical theory and of Empson's complex SH at times deeply antagonistic SH attitude towards those developments. In their diversity of viewpoint and critical approach the nine essays reflect this sturdy resistance to fashionable trends of 'Eng. Lit.' opinion. Topics include the relations between Empson and Derrida's approaches to the issue of textual 'undecidability', and Empson's prominent (if unwilling role) in the shaping of English as an academic discourse. Christopher Norris's extended introduction charts the ground and offers a major revaluation of Empson's place in the theoretical tradition.

The Critical Achievement

The English poet, philosopher and literary critic William Empson considered 'The Face of the Buddha' to be one of his finest works. Drafted as he travelled throughout eastern and southern Asia during the 1930's, it is a highly personal account of the cultures and artworks he encountered in Japan, Korea, China, Burma, India and Ceylon, and contains perspectives and theories that are not found in any of his other works. Empson was heartbroken when he lost the onlycopy of the manuscript in the wake of World War Two, but its recent rediscovery means the book can now be offered exactly as he intended, complete with his original photographs. A comprehensiveintroduction by the global culture historian Rupert Arrowsmith ensures that the text is just as accessible to the general reader as it is to academics and students.

The Face of the Buddha

A collection of essays on Shakespheare by the late poet and critic William Empson.

William Empson: Essays on Shakespeare

The Gathering Storm

Hailed as a masterpiece on its publication in 1930, this landmark in the history of criticism draws on authors from Chaucer to Eliot, illuminating the strategies of individual writers and creating a brilliant theory of poetic practice.

Some of William Empson's most passionate and controversial essays, including previously inaccessible pieces.

William Empson: Essays on Renaissance Literature: Volume 1, Donne and the New Philosophy

By William Empson

The Gathering Storm Poems

John Henry Jones

Analyzes Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, argues that the original text was subjected to religious censorship, and speculates on the original theme of the play

William Empson

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