cover image Under Review: Further Writings on Writers, 1946-1990

Under Review: Further Writings on Writers, 1946-1990

Anthony Powell. University of Chicago Press, $50 (480pp) ISBN 978-0-226-67712-5

English novelist and critic Powell ( Miscellaneous Verdicts ) here presents a collection of his intelligent and witty book reviews written over the past 40 years for the Daily Telegraph and other British publications. The books reviewed are primarily literary biographies, memoirs and correspondence of such British authors as T. S. Eliot, Wilde and Galsworthy. Powell devotes an entire section to reviews of works dealing with Bloomsbury notables and another that treats writers from other European countries, including the Brothers Grimm, Madame De Stael and Flaubert. Although the reviews are short (about 1000 words), Powell not only provides an informed evaluation of the text but shares his astonishing knowledge of literature to further illuminate the writer whose life and work he is treating. These interesting reviews are for devotees of serious literature. (June)