The Letters of Kingsley Amis - Hardcover

Amis, Kingsley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786867574 ISBN 13: 9780786867578

Publisher: Miramax, 2001

Synopsis

Collects the letters of the British novelist to individuals including Philip Larkin, Victor Gollancz, Elizabeth Jane Howard, and Brian Aldiss.

About this title

Review:

As well as being a prolific novelist, Kingsley Amis loved to write letters. And whether one views him as a comic genius or misanthropic bar-fly, his literary output alone justifies the publication of this comprehensive collection. Here are fulminations to the press, laddish porn-swapping with best friend Philip Larkin, along with numerous communications, charming and vitriolic, to editors and agents.

Those seeking revelations might be disappointed but browsers will find a treasury of poignant detail. As an undergraduate, Amis advises Larkin on girls; he's still doing so 30 years later. As a father, he cloaks pride with irony ("Scoundrelly Mart has sold his novel to the Yanks", he fumes, a propos of Martin Amis's The Rachel Papers). An avowed enemy of sentiment, he pens touching notes to his second wife, replete with pet names and illustrations. Later, he is vulnerable--terrified by alcoholism, widening waistbands and false teeth. This collection does not pretend to provide a key to his complex personality, but amply fulfils Amis's own prophecy: "What a feast is awaiting chaps ... when our ... letters come out". Not even appetites of Amis's proportions could digest this feast at one sitting--The Letters of Kingsley Amis is a book to be savoured over a lifetime. --Matthew Baylis

Review:

‘You can put this book in front of people and watch them crack up’
David Sexton, Evening Standard

‘A bracing delight’
Julie Burchill, Guardian

‘Better than Evelyn Waugh’
Economist

‘A wonderful, wickedly enjoyable collection’
Andrew Vine, Yorkshire Post

‘Hugely entertaining’
Katharine Whitehorn, Observer

‘A feast’
Blake Morrison, Independent on Sunday

About this edition

• Publisher: Miramax
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0786867574
• ISBN 13: 9780786867578
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1212
• Editor: Leader Zachary