Moeyes (English, Hogeschool voor Economische Studies, Amsterdam) has written the first comprehensive critical study of the work of English writer Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) since his death. Moeyes's biographical approach makes extensive use of Sassoon's diaries and letters, showing how the work reflects Sassoon's ideas and experiences, with the notable exception of his homosexuality. Sassoon is usually remembered as a World War I poet, but Moeyes believes that, though he lacked the kind of creative imagination that makes a first-rate fiction writer, he was a better prose writer than poet. He was at his best describing his childhood and middle-class country life before World War I, as in the autobiographical novel Memoirs of Fox-Hunting Man and the autobiography Seven More Years. Moeyes has nicely resurrected a nearly lost literary figure. Recommended for academic British literature collections and where interest in Sassoon warrants.?Judy Mimken, Boise P.L., Ind.
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Product Description
Siegfried Sassoon: Scorched Glory is the first survey of the poet's published work since his death and the first to draw on the edited diaries and letters. We learn how Sassoon's family background and Jewish inheritance, his troubled sexuality, his experience of war - in particular his public opposition to it - his relationship to the Georgian poets and other writers, and his eventual withdrawal to country life shaped his creativity. Sassoon's status as a war poet has overshadowed his wider achievements and the complex personality behind them. This critical evaluation of Sassoon's work is long overdue and will provide a valuable starting-point for future reappraisals of a writer for whom life and art were fused.
