Enemies Of Promise
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: No dust jacket - paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner.
A landmark work of literary criticism and memoir, Enemies of Promise presents Cyril Connolly's sharp, witty, and deeply personal argument about what it takes to write a book that endures for ten years — and what forces conspire to prevent a writer from achieving that goal. Connolly identifies the twin corruptions of style — the Mandarin and the vernacular — and argues with brilliant precision how journalism, domesticity, politics, and drink all wage war against serious literary ambition. The second half of the book shifts into autobiography, chronicling Connolly's own formation as a writer through his schooldays at Eton, offering a candid and often rueful portrait of the English literary establishment. Witty, self-lacerating, and fiercely intelligent, the work stands as one of the most honest and enduring pieces of self-analysis in twentieth-century letters. First published in 1938, it remains essential reading for anyone who cares about the craft and fate of writing.
Author: Cyril Connolly
Format: Paperback
Published: 1938, Penguin Modern Classics
Genre: Literary theory
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: No dust jacket - paperback. Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner.
A landmark work of literary criticism and memoir, Enemies of Promise presents Cyril Connolly's sharp, witty, and deeply personal argument about what it takes to write a book that endures for ten years — and what forces conspire to prevent a writer from achieving that goal. Connolly identifies the twin corruptions of style — the Mandarin and the vernacular — and argues with brilliant precision how journalism, domesticity, politics, and drink all wage war against serious literary ambition. The second half of the book shifts into autobiography, chronicling Connolly's own formation as a writer through his schooldays at Eton, offering a candid and often rueful portrait of the English literary establishment. Witty, self-lacerating, and fiercely intelligent, the work stands as one of the most honest and enduring pieces of self-analysis in twentieth-century letters. First published in 1938, it remains essential reading for anyone who cares about the craft and fate of writing.