Critic Claire Harman
considers this poem a little masterpiece, hard to categorise and unaccountably neglected.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “Editorial Materials”. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Collected Poems, edited by Claire Harman, Carcanet New Press, 1982, pp. xi - xxiii; 275.
xix
Literary responses
Sylvia Townsend Warner
STW
's biographer Claire Harman
terms this story extraordinarily delicate . . . at once both worldly and lyrical, reminiscent of Colette
, whose writing Sylvia admired.
Harman, Claire. Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography. Chatto and Windus, 1989.
62-3
Literary responses
Sylvia Townsend Warner
The novel's publication went largely unnoticed, owing to the political events leading up to World War Two. Claire Harman
admires STW
's imaginative integrity in managing to write a detached, politically objective novel during a...
Literary responses
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Reviewers noted that the letters form an account of an essentially peaceful, domestic, literary life in the country, which comes alive through STW
's perceptive, witty, compassionate, and sometimes tart observation.
qtd. in
Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Gale Research, 1981–2024, Numerous volumes.
60: 412
According to...
Literary responses
Angela Carter
Anthony Burgess
praised AC
for doing something in this novel which she did in later ones as well: looking at the mess of contemporary life without flinching.
Lee, Alison. Angela Carter. Twayne, 1997.
23
Claire Harman
points out surreal characters, the...
Literary responses
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Louis Untermeyer
, an early supporter of STW
's poetry, commented favourably on her marked accent,half-modern, half-archaic blend of naivete and erudition, and the low-pitched but tart tone of voice.
qtd. in
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “Editorial Materials”. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Collected Poems, edited by Claire Harman, Carcanet New Press, 1982, pp. xi - xxiii; 275.
xv
He also suggested...
Publishing
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Sylvia Townsend Warner
: Collected Poems was edited and published posthumously by Claire Harman
. It includes previously unpublished and uncollected poems.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “Editorial Materials”. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Collected Poems, edited by Claire Harman, Carcanet New Press, 1982, pp. xi - xxiii; 275.
Sylvia Townsend Warner
: Selected Poems, a collection of her poetry written over a span of over fifty years, was edited and published posthumously by Claire Harman
.
Harman, Claire, and Sylvia Townsend Warner. “Afterword”. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Selected Poems, Carcanet Press, 1985, p. 95.
95
Reception
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Lolly Willowes is still in print, and, according to Claire Harman
was still STW
's best-known work at the latter part of the twentieth century. Alison Lurie
wrote the introduction for an edition in the...
Reception
Sylvia Townsend Warner
This volume, according to biographer Claire Harman
, seems stranger than fiction, and rather funnier.
Harman, Claire. Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography. Chatto and Windus, 1989.
248
STW
commented that she could always satisfy her craving for the improbable by recording with perfect truth my own...
Reception
Sylvia Townsend Warner
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
, and in June 1977 the Aldeburgh Festival honoured her with a special programme of her work. As if to reinforce the parallel sometimes...
Reception
Valentine Ackland
Though VA
's poems were well received when they first began to appear, she was always a poet out of step with her time: more in tune, as Claire Harman
remarks, with writers of the...
This lengthy poem, written in couplets, was modelled on the works of George Crabbe
. It was in a form mid-way between the short story and satirical verse. According to Claire Harman
, the poem...
Textual Features
Valentine Ackland
Warner and Ackland point out in a Note to the Reader, which is a kind of manifesto, that the text is not a collaboration, but rather a joint collection of their poetry. They explain...
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Harman, Claire, and Sylvia Townsend Warner. “Afterword”. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Selected Poems, Carcanet Press, 1985, p. 95.
Warner, Sylvia Townsend. “Editorial Materials”. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Collected Poems, edited by Claire Harman, Carcanet New Press, 1982, pp. xi - xxiii; 275.
Harman, Claire. Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography. Chatto and Windus, 1989.