Dylan's Visions of Sin - Softcover

Ricks, Professor Of English Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060599243 ISBN 13: 9780060599249

Publisher: Ecco Press, 2005

Synopsis

Bob Dylan's ways with words are a wonder, matched as they are with his music and verified by those voices of his. In response to the whole range of Dylan early and late (his songs of social conscience, of earthly love, of divine love, and of contemplation), this critical appreciation listens to Dylan's attentive genius, alive in the very words and their rewards.

"Fools they made a mock of sin." Dylan's is an art in which sins are laid bare (and resisted), virtues are valued (and manifested), and the graces brought home. The seven deadly sins, the four cardinal virtues (harder to remember?), and the three heavenly graces: these make up everybody's world -- but Dylan's in particular. Or rather, his worlds, since human dealings of every kind are his for the artistic seizing. Pride is anatomized in "Like a Rolling Stone," Envy in "Positively 4th Street," Anger in "Only a Pawn in Their Game" ... But, hearteningly, Justice reclaims "Hattie Carroll," Fortitude "Blowin' in the Wind," Faith "Precious Angel," Hope "Forever Young," and Charity "Watered-Down Love."

In The "New Yorker, Alex Ross wrote that "Ricks's writing on Dylan is the best there is. Unlike most rock critics -- 'forty-year-olds talking to ten-year-olds, ' Dylan has called them -- he writes for adults." In the "Times (London), Bryan Appleyard maintained that "Ricks, one of the most distinguished literary critics of our time, is almost the only writer to have applied serious literary intelligence to Dylan ..."

Dylan's countless listeners (and even the artist himself, who knows?) may agree with W.H. Auden that Ricks "is exactly the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding."

About this title

Review:

"Ricks's writing on Dylan is the best there is" (Alex Ross New Yorker)

"The rewards are just as one would expect: a bracing attention to artfulness, a wonderful sensitivity to nuance, and a particularly brilliant sympathy with the purpose and effect of Dylan's rhymes" (Andrew Motion Guardian)

"Everything Ricks has to say about Dylan is original. He is a critic who seems to be talking to you from within the work. He can turn the smallest niche in a poem into a vast cathedral of resonance and implication." (Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times)

"A great case has been made by a great critic (Christopher Ricks) that a great lyricist - Bob Dylan - is, in fact, a poet" (New York Review of Books)

"Bob Dylan is fast becoming rock's equivalent of James Joyce" (Sean O'Hagan Observer)

"Compelling, convincing and challenging work of literary scholarship." (Alan Taylor Sunday Herald)

"Structured around the concepts of sin, virtue and grace, Ricks's close reading and imaginative cross-referencing will indeed uncover meanings in Dylan's songs that would never have occured to you." (Anthony Quinn Daily Telegraph)

"Zips along with irrepressible good humour. . . Ricks's work has the lustre of a lifetime of engagement with greatness." (Peter Aspden Financial Times)

"Fascinating, there are wonderfully penetrating and illuminating moments to be found. I was never less than stimulated and frequently stirred." (John Preston Sunday Telegraph)

"Ricks is an exemplar of the diminishingly seen art of "close reading", and explicator of Milton, Keats, Tennyson and Eliot. . . Such clockwork analysis never seems to drain Dylan's work of its vitality, but rather to renew a listener's amazement. . . In doing so he's found the songs all the more extraordinary, not wanting in any measure. . . Ricks's book leads you back to Dylan's music, no small virtue." (Jonathan Lethem New York Times Book Review)

Book Description:

A critically-acclaimed examination of Bob Dylan's lyrics as poetry, through the prism of the 7 Deadly Sins

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0060599243
• ISBN 13: 9780060599249
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528