Madoc: A Mystery - Hardcover

Muldoon, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374195579 ISBN 13: 9780374195571

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1991

Synopsis

A cycle of poems based on the idea that the English poets Coleridge and Southey had gone ahead with the plan they had in 1794 of emigrating to the United States and settling on the frontier

About this title

Review:

"One of the best in a generation of Northern Irish poets born since World War II, Mr. Muldoon has come to be known for . . . a witty, subversive instinct that undermines cliches, truisms, eternal verities, and his own previous sentences . . . Madoc is an outre movie spectacular . . . a tour de force."--Lucy McDiarmid, "The New York Times Book Review"

"More than language--and no one who loves words can fail to be amazed by Muldoon--there is Madoc's story . . . Muldoon's magic consists of lifting Southey's shrewdly calculating apostasy off the pages he wrote and transporting it, full-blown, to a vulgar, brawling, optimistic America--an America that of course remains in the warp and woof of the immediate one."--Geoffrey Stokes, "The Village Voice"

"Muldoon's reinvention of himself as an American writer is a source of vast entertainment. Madoc is also, though, a profoundly Irish book . . . Muldoon shows us a mind at work, teasing, improvising, listening, reading, loving, and his apparently impersonal narrative turns out to be a winning self-portrait. It is a dazzling achievement."--Lachlan MacKinnon, " Times Literary Supplement"

"What takes the reader through the poem is pleasure and puzzlement in roughly equal measure . . . Essentially, [Muldoon] is taking his style for a walk, and the style is mesmerising . . . Every reading--and still, more, every new bit of information--makes Madoc a cleverer and more imposing piece of work . . . [Muldoon is] one of the most metaphoric poets alive, in whom words and facts and things themselves are . . . comprehensively and gracefully destabilized."--Michael Hofman, "London Review of Books"

One of the best in a generation of Northern Irish poets born since World War II, Mr. Muldoon has come to be known for . . . a witty, subversive instinct that undermines cliches, truisms, eternal verities, and his own previous sentences . . . Madoc is an outre movie spectacular . . . a tour de force. "Lucy McDiarmid, The New York Times Book Review"

More than language--and no one who loves words can fail to be amazed by Muldoon--there is Madoc's story . . . Muldoon's magic consists of lifting Southey's shrewdly calculating apostasy off the pages he wrote and transporting it, full-blown, to a vulgar, brawling, optimistic America--an America that of course remains in the warp and woof of the immediate one. "Geoffrey Stokes, The Village Voice"

Muldoon's reinvention of himself as an American writer is a source of vast entertainment. Madoc is also, though, a profoundly Irish book . . . Muldoon shows us a mind at work, teasing, improvising, listening, reading, loving, and his apparently impersonal narrative turns out to be a winning self-portrait. It is a dazzling achievement. "Lachlan MacKinnon, Times Literary Supplement"

What takes the reader through the poem is pleasure and puzzlement in roughly equal measure . . . Essentially, [Muldoon] is taking his style for a walk, and the style is mesmerising . . . Every reading--and still, more, every new bit of information--makes Madoc a cleverer and more imposing piece of work . . . [Muldoon is] one of the most metaphoric poets alive, in whom words and facts and things themselves are . . . comprehensively and gracefully destabilized. "Michael Hofman, London Review of Books""

"One of the best in a generation of Northern Irish poets born since World War II, Mr. Muldoon has come to be known for . . . a witty, subversive instinct that undermines cliches, truisms, eternal verities, and his own previous sentences . . . Madoc is an outre movie spectacular . . . a tour de force." --Lucy McDiarmid, The New York Times Book Review

"More than language--and no one who loves words can fail to be amazed by Muldoon--there is Madoc's story . . . Muldoon's magic consists of lifting Southey's shrewdly calculating apostasy off the pages he wrote and transporting it, full-blown, to a vulgar, brawling, optimistic America--an America that of course remains in the warp and woof of the immediate one." --Geoffrey Stokes, The Village Voice

"Muldoon's reinvention of himself as an American writer is a source of vast entertainment. Madoc is also, though, a profoundly Irish book . . . Muldoon shows us a mind at work, teasing, improvising, listening, reading, loving, and his apparently impersonal narrative turns out to be a winning self-portrait. It is a dazzling achievement." --Lachlan MacKinnon, Times Literary Supplement

"What takes the reader through the poem is pleasure and puzzlement in roughly equal measure . . . Essentially, [Muldoon] is taking his style for a walk, and the style is mesmerising . . . Every reading--and still, more, every new bit of information--makes Madoc a cleverer and more imposing piece of work . . . [Muldoon is] one of the most metaphoric poets alive, in whom words and facts and things themselves are . . . comprehensively and gracefully destabilized." --Michael Hofman, London Review of Books

About the Author:

Paul Muldoon was born in Northern Ireland in 1951. He lives with his family in New Jersey, where he chairs the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University. In 1999 he was elected Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0374195579
• ISBN 13: 9780374195571
• Binding: Hardcover